BERGER, OSCAR:

By: Isidore Singer, Frederick T. Haneman

German electrotherapist and medical author; born at Münsterberg, Silesia, Nov. 24, 1844; died at Ober-Salzbrunn, Silesia, July 19, 1885. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native town and at the universities of Berlin, Vienna, and Breslau, receiving his degree as doctor of medicine in 1867. In 1869 he engaged in practise as a physician in Breslau, making electrotherapy his specialty. In 1873 he became privat-docent at the University of Breslau, being the first at that institution to lecture on nervous diseases. Five years later he was elected assistant professor. In 1877 he was appointed chief consulting physician and medical inspector of the Breslau poorhouse.

Berger made a special study of neuralgia of the joints, of the relation of neuralgia to diabetes and nephritis, of neuralgia of the face and of the genitals, of the relation of syphilis to tabes, and (with Heidenheim) of hypnotism.

A very prolific writer, he contributed many articles on neurology and electrotherapy to technical journals, and was one of the editors of the "Neurologisches Centralblatt." For Eulenburg's "Encyklopädie der Gesammten Heilkunde" he also wrote many articles, including "Epilepsie," "Beschäftigungsneurosen," "Paralysis Agitans," "Tetanie," etc. His best-known works are "Die Lähmung des Nervus Thoracicus Longus," Breslau, 1873; and "Zur Lokalisation der Corticalen Sehsphäre beim Menschen," Breslau, 1885.

S. F. T. H.