Buchheim

Buchheim, Rudolf (Rudolf Buchheim, 1820-79), renowned pharmacologist; son of a physician. Graduated from the med.-surg. academy in Dresden, continued his studies at the University of Leipzig, where in 1845 he defended his doctoral dissertation and was assistant at the anat.-physiol. institute. From 1847, professor of pharmacology (more precisely-"the science of medicines, dietetics, history of medicine and medical literature") in Dorpat, where he organized a pharmacological laboratory; from 1867, professor of pharmacology in Giessen, where he organized a pharmacological institute. B. authored numerous works on experimental pharmacology and several editions of a pharmacology textbook, in which was used the now eponymous classification of medicinal substances, consisting in their distribution, depending on properties and action, into groups, which receive the name of their most characteristic representative (e.g., the group of digitalis, the group of cocaine, etc.).

A major contribution of B. was the application of physiological methodology in pharmacology and the creation of institutes for the experimental study of pharmacology, which separated it from "pharmacy and pharmacognosy", with which it had previously been taught together. One of B.'s students was the famous pharmacologist Schmiedeberg (O. Schmiedeberg).