Clemens von Pirquet

PIRQUET, Clemens von (1874–1929), Austrian pediatrician and original scientific thinker. He graduated from the University of Vienna in 1900. He initially worked at the Vienna Children's Clinic under the direction of Escherich, who immediately appreciated the young scientist. From 1902 to 1908, Pirquet was an assistant to Escherich; in 1908, he became a privatdocent and soon a professor, first in Baltimore (at the invitation of the United States), then in Breslau, and finally from 1911 (after Escherich's death) at the Vienna Clinic, where he worked until his death. Pirquet's works have not only pediatric but also broad general biological significance. His most significant works belong to the early period of his assistantship and docentship: the doctrine of allergy, which is of enormous importance; vaccination; serum sickness; accelerated and immediate reactions (together with Schick); and the significance of the latter in relation to previously suffered diseases. Carefully studying measles exanthema, Pirquet constructed a new theory on the significance of blood distribution for the localization of the rash. The discovery of the cutaneous tuberculin reaction (1907), which revolutionized the study of tuberculosis, brought Pirquet world fame. Among his practical inventions, his borchike is well known, and the bed-box proposed by him is of interest, originally solving the problem of isolating an infant. One of his inventions in the automotive business was patented in Washington. In his later years, Pirquet engaged heavily in anthropometry and developed an original, albeit somewhat complex, system for determining a child's nutritional requirements. Using its scientific grounds, he brilliantly expanded the cause of child nutrition when, at the proposal of America, he headed the Quaker organization for starving children in Austria after the war. The Pirquet Clinic—one of the best in the world—attracted pediatricians from all countries and produced many worthy disciples. Pirquet died full of strength and scientific plans at 55 years of age, along with his wife, under mysterious circumstances suggesting suicide. The major works of Pirquet published as separate editions include: Klinische Studien über Vakzination u. vakzinale Allergie (Leipzig–Vienna, 1907); Allergie (Berlin, 1910); System der Ernährung (Vols. 1–4, Berlin, 1917–20); Lehrbuch der Volksernährung (jointly with E. Meyerhofer, Berlin–Vienna, 1920); Handbuch der Kindertuberkulose (collective manual edited by Pirquet and S. Engel, Leipzig, 1930).