Martin H Fischer

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German-born American physician, physiologist, painter and author. He is best known for his pithy comments about the art and practice of medicine. His famed quotation "A doctor must work eighteen hours a day and seven days a week. If you cannot console yourself to this, get out of the profession" is often recited on the first day on medical schools. But he was also a noted painter. He was born in the East Gaarden part of the city of Kiel. In 1885 his family moved to the USA. He studied medicine, was first an instructor in Physiology at the University of California, and since 1910 Professor of Physiology in the University of Cincinnati. In Cincinnati he published the third edition of Oedema and nephritis (1921). It dealt partly with by sometimes by Streptococcal bacteria caused kidney disorder the Nephrotic syndrome, that is characterised by proteinuria, hypoalbuminemia and edema. Loss in the urine of the colloid protein albumin causes the edema. Before the advent of penicillin and other antibiotics and immunosuppressive drugs, the Nephrotic syndrome was a major cause of death of young people. In 1924 he got the Laura R. Leonhardt Prize of the German Kolloid-Gesellschaft (1922). Some of his works are found in the Internet Archive: 1903 Physical Chemistry for Physicians and Biologists( an authorised translation of "Vorträge für ärzte über physikalische chemie" of the Dutch Prof Ernst Cohen). 1910 Oedema, a study of the physiology and the pathology of water absorption by the living organism 1917 The Physiology Of Alimentation 1917 Fats and fatty degeneration, a physico-chemical study of emulsions and the normal and abnormal distribution of fat in protoplasm 1921 Soaps and proteins; their colloid chemistry in theory and practice 1940 Death and Dentistry 1944 Fischerisms (Aphoristic collections, sometimes known as wisdom literature) He died 19 January 1962. Link to German Wikipedia