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Friedrich Arnold (1803-1890)

Philipp Friedrich Arnold was born in 1803 in Edenkoben (Rheinpfalz). He studied medicine in Heidelberg, where he also received his doctorate in medicine in 1825. He worked for Tiedemann as a second prosector, in 1828 he became the first prosector and 4 years later a professor.

In 1835 Arnold left Heidelberg to spent the next 17 years at the University of Zürich, Freiburg im Breisgau and Tübingen. He accepted a professorship in Heidelberg in 1852, replacing Jacob Henle as the director of the Institute of Anatomy and Physiology. Before retirement he was, like Tiedemann before him, a member of numerous scientific boards and societies and also a member of the academic senate and Dean of the medical school. His successor was Carl Gegenbaur, an established anatomist and zoologist in Germany.

Arnold dissected numerous human brains; his primary area of research was the "vagus nerve" (the 10th cranial nerve). The auricular branch of the vagus (a nerve, which innervates the skin around the ear) was initially described by him. Since then the following nomenclature is used in countries in which English is spoken: "Arnold’s canal", "Arnold’s ganglion", "Arnold’s nerve" und "Arnold’s nerve cough". In 1890 he died in Heidelberg at the age of 87.

To the digitized works by Friedrich Arnold

Requests, suggestions and criticism to Dr.sc.hum. Sara Doll