[Ludwig Traube's contribution to nephrology]

Ludwig Traube (1818-1876), director of the Propaedeutic Clinic of the Charité, analysed the kidney diseases by means of simple clinical and morphological techniques. He subdivided the morbus Brightii into a diffuse and interstitial nephritis, the amyloid kidney and the congestion kidney; he explained the pathophysiology of the clinical manifestations of these diseases; 125 years ago he interpreted uraemic convulsions as an expression of the cerebral ischaemia; he devoted himself particularly to the connections between cardiac and renal diseases and described the renal hypertension. He made proposals to the prophylaxis of the catheter sepsis. He deserves a lasting remembrance as the pioneer of nephrology in the German-speaking countries.