Ludwig Robert Müller (1870-1962)--a pioneer of autonomic nervous system research

Ludwig Robert Müller, MD, professor of internal medicine, born in 1870 in Augsburg, Bavaria, studied medicine from 1890 to 1893 in various European cities and specialized in pathology and bacteriology. In 1895, he joined A. Strümpell, one of Germany's outstanding internists and neurologists, in Erlangen, Germany. Henceforth, Müller focused on the autonomic nervous system. In his 1898 Habilitation, a thesis required to join the academic faculty, which he entitled Anatomy and pathology of the lower spinal cord, he presented studies on the autonomic innervation of the bladder and colon. Based on animal studies, he continued to publish essential findings on the autonomic innervation of heart, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract. Müller was the first to report afferent pathways from internal organs to the brain. His book The vegetative nervous system was first published in 1920. In 1931, he wrote the book Lebensnerven und Lebenstriebe (Life nerves and life instincts). Many of his papers dealt with the regulation of thirst, hunger and sleep. He was Chairman of Internal Medicine in Würzburg, Germany, from 1914 to 1920, and also in Erlangen as Strümpell's successor from 1920 to 1936. The broad scope of Müller's publications makes him one of the important pioneers of autonomic nervous system research.