Friedrich Weleminsky

Joseph Friedrich ("Fritz") Weleminsky (20 January 1868 – 1 January 1945) was an Austrian-Czech medical doctor and scientist. He was a privatdozent in Hygiene (now called Microbiology) at the German University, Prague who, in the early 20th century, created an alternative treatment for tuberculosis, tuberculomucin Weleminsky.

Early life and education He was born into a Jewish family on 20 January 1868 in Golčův Jeníkov in Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now in the Czech Republic). His parents were Jacob Weleminsky (1834–1905), a general medical practitioner (GP) in Golčův Jeníkov, and his wife Bertha (née Kohn; 1844–1914). Friedrich was their second child; he had an elder sister, Paula (1867–1936), who in 1888 married a Dresden lawyer, Felix Popper, and a younger brother, Josef ("Pepi") (1870–1937) who, like Friedrich, studied medicine in Prague and who went on to become a laryngologist.

The family moved to Dresden in 1879 when Jacob obtained a position as GP there, and later to Prague. Friedrich attended the Kreuzschule in Dresden and studied medicine in Prague.

Career Friedrich Weleminsky enrolled in the medical faculty of the German University in Prague in 1893 and obtained a habilitation qualification as Dr.Med. in 1900. He was appointed to a teaching post in the university's medical faculty as a privatdozent in Hygiene in July 1900. and successfully argued for the banning of Branntweinlutschbeutel, an infant pacifier that contained brandy.

During the First World War, Weleminsky was in charge of the reserve hospital "Halicz" which was stationed in various parts of Austria and Hungary. While stationed in Kleinreifling, a village in the district of Steyr-Land in Upper Austria, he successfully brought a local typhoid epidemic under control, for which he was made an Ehrenbürger of Weyer. as providing "a good review of the voluminous literature accumulated on BCG".

In 1912, Weleminsky, who was then second assistant to Ferdinand Hueppe, the head of the Institute for Hygiene at the German University of Prague, published his discovery of a new treatment for tuberculosis, which he named tuberculomucin (Tbm). It was tested on guinea pigs, with number 1769 being the first to survive due to the treatment in 1909. He also used tuberculomucin Weleminsky (also spelt tuberkulomucin Weleminsky and tuberkulomuzin Weleminsky) to treat cattle which he kept at his wife's family's country retreat, Schloss Thalheim.

More than 60 papers were published in German describing tuberculomucin's use in humans, but very few of them were read by an English-speaking audience. By the mid-1920s it was known as tuberculomucin Weleminsky and at least two companies were involved in producing and marketing the treatment.

Personal and family life On 4 December 1905 he married Jenny Elbogen (1882–1957), at her parents' country home, Schloss Thalheim, Lower Austria. The married couple lived in Prague and at Schloss Thalheim,

Death and legacy Friedrich Weleminsky died of pneumonia on 1 January 1945 at Fulham Hospital, London Since 2017, Friedrich's youngest granddaughter Judy Weleminsky has been leading this research.

Publications Basch, K; Weleminsky, Friedrich (1898). "Ueber die Ausscheidung von Krankheitserregern durch die Milch". Jahrb. f. Kinderheilk. 47, 105–115 Weleminsky, Friedrich (1899). Über Sporenbildung bei Dematium pululans de Bary, 7pp. Weleminsky, Friedrich (1899). Ueber Akklimitisation in Grossstädten (On acclimisation in large cities), Oldenbourg: Munich. Off-print from Archiv für Hygiene, 26: 2 Jadassohn, J; Pick, Walther; Weleminsky, Friedrich (1903). "Buchanzeigen und Besprechungen". Archiv für Dermatologie und Syphilis, 64(1): 149–160 Weleminsky, Friedrich (1905). "Zur Pathogenese der Lungentuberkulose (On the pathogenesis of lung tuberculosis)". Klinische Wochenschrift (Clinical Weekly). Berlin, Springer-Verlag Weleminsky, Friedrich (1906). "Ueber Zuchtung von Mikroorganismen in stromenden Nahrboden". Zentralblatt fur Bakteriologie, Parasitenkunde und Infektionskrankheiten (Central Journal of Bacteriology, Parasitics, Infectious Diseases and Hygiene), 42: 1–7 Weleminsky, Friedrich (1907). "Der Gang von Infektionen in den Lymphbahnen (The course of infections in the lymphatics)". Klinische Wochenschrift (Clinical Weekly). Berlin, Springer-Verlag Weleminsky, Friedrich (1912). "Ueber die Bildung von Elweiss und Mucin durch Tuberkelbacillen". Klinische Wochenschrift (Clinical Weekly). 28: 1–8 Berlin, Springer-Verlag Weleminsky, Friedrich (1914). "Tierversuche mit Tuberculomucin". Klinische Wochenschrift (Clinical Weekly). 18: 1–10 Berlin, Springer-Verlag Weleminsky, Friedrich (1928). "Filtrable form of tubercle bacilli". Zentralbl. f. d. gesam. Tuberk.Forsch. 28(5/6): 305–310 Weleminsky, Friedrich (1930). "Die Immunisierung gegen Tuberkulose mit Calmette's BCG". Klinische Wochenschrift (Clinical Weekly). II: 1317–1320 Berlin, Springer-Verlag Weleminsky, Friedrich (1930). "Die B.C.G.-Literatur in französischer Sprache". Zentralbl. f. d. gesam. Tuberk.Forsch. 33: 129–135