Foerster

FOERSTER Otfried (Otfried Foerster; born in 1873), famous German neurologist and neurosurgeon. In 1909, F. received the title of professor, and in 1911 he organized a clinical department of neurology at the city hospital in Breslau, where his independent scientific activity began. In 1902, F. published "Die Physiologie und Pathologie der Coordination" (Jena, 1902), then he published a series of works on physiology: "Die Mitbewegungen bei Gesunden, Nerven- und Geisteskranken" (Jena, 1903); "Das Wesen der choreatischen Bewegungsstorungen" (Samml. klin. Vortrage, 1904, N 382); "Die Kontrakturen der Pyramidenbahn" (Berlin, 1906). The direct result of these works was F.'s proposal to treat spastic paralyses and gastric crises, etc., by cutting the posterior roots. Particular importance is attached to F.'s doctrine of sensitivity based on consideration of various variants in cerebral, spinal, and peripheral lesions. From the beginning of the imperialist war (1914), F. became an independent neurosurgeon, and is currently one of the most outstanding operators on the nervous system. Military material served as the source of numerous works by F. on the symptomatology of peripheral nerves, traumatic lesions of the spinal cord, and finally the classical work on the conducting pathways of pain sensation. F. devoted most of his time to the detailed study of localization in the cerebral cortex. The "hyperventilation" introduced by F. into clinical practice led to a profound substantiation of the genesis of epileptic seizures. F. was one of the first neurosurgeons to widely use encephalo- and ventriculography, and currently has extensive material on this subject. In 1923-24, F. participated in the treatment of V. I. Lenin. F. is the editor of the three most popular neurological journals in Germany: "Zeitschrift f. d. ges. Neurologie", "Zeitschrift f. Nervenheilkunde" and "Archiv f. Psychiatrie", as well as the well-known series "Monographien a. d. Gesamtgebiete der Neurologie".