Karl Otto Weber

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Karl Otto Weber (29 December 1827 – 11 June 1867) was a German surgeon and pathologist born in Frankfurt. He grew up in Bremen, where his father ran the local gymnasium, and he developed a strong interest in the natural sciences. In 1846 he entered the University of Bonn and studied botany, geology and mineralogy, with a focus on paleontological botany. He earned his medical degree in Bonn in 1851 and passed his state exam in 1852. He then spent time studying in Paris and, during the winter of 1852/53, worked as an assistant in the Bonn surgery clinic of Karl Wilhelm Wutzer, staying there for four years. By 1853 he was a Privatdozent in surgery and pursued pathological anatomy.

After Wutzer retired in 1855, Weber assisted Busch in 1856. The Bonn faculty urged him to specialize in pathological anatomy, a field not yet represented there. In 1857 he became an extraordinary professor of pathological anatomy and in 1862 an ordinary professor. In 1865 Weber moved to Heidelberg to become professor of surgery and helped build a hospital in Heidelberg-Bergheim. He died in Heidelberg in 1867 at the age of 39 from diphtheria.

Weber was a dedicated pathological anatomist who focused on histology and histogenesis. He wrote many articles, drawing his own illustrations and preparing them for lithography. Much of his work appeared in the Handbuch der allgemeinen und speciellen Chirurgie. He also published essays in the Preußischen Jahrbüchern on topics such as Johannes Müller, Alexander von Humboldt and their influence on science, an obituary for Wutzer, and pieces on the beginnings and importance of pathological anatomy.