Objective:

To shed light on German physician Heinrich Quincke’s immense contributions to clinical neurosciences.

Background:

The 19th century was a period of exponential growth in medicine and neurosciences, to which Heinrich Quincke greatly contributed. He was recommended multiple times for the Nobel prize for his discovery of the “Lumbalpunction” or lumbar puncture for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes.

Design/Methods:

Review of literature

Results:

Heinrich Quincke was the son of Hermann Quincke, a titled physician. Born in 1842, he began his medical training at 16, showing immense scientific proficiency early in his career, and becoming a professor at 30. He was passionate about treating his patients, who affectionately referred to him as “model Uncle Doctor.” As a young physician, he learned about the anatomy and physiology of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pathway by injecting red mercuric sulfide into the subarachnoid spaces of dogs. Quincke used this knowledge to develop the technique of inserting a fine needle with a stylet in the lumbar intervertebral space to decrease intracranial pressure by obtaining CSF from patients with hydrocephalus. He was the first physician to study the contents of CSF. He identified bacteria in CSF, described the decrease in sugar content in bacterial meningitis, and studied pressures at the beginning and end of the puncture. Walter Essex Wynter independently devised a lumbar puncture technique in the same year as Quincke, inserting a Southey tube attached to a rubber drainage tube. Since Wynter’s method was thought to be cruder, Quincke’s method was more widely accepted and has lasted with little modification into today’s practice.

Conclusions:

Heinrich Quincke was instrumental in our understanding of the CSF system. He propelled the field of neurology by inventing the lumbar puncture, a diagnostic and treatment procedure that is still widely in use today.