Julius Wolff (surgeon)

Julius Wolff (March 21, 1836 – February 18, 1902) was a German surgeon.

Julius Wolf was born on March 21, 1836 in Märkisch Friedland, and received his doctorate in 1861 in the field of surgery under Bernhard von Langenbeck (1810–1887) at Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Berlin. In 1861 he settled down after the state examination as a general practitioner in Berlin. He participated as a surgeon in three military campaigns (1864, 1866, 1870/71).

Based on observations in his long career as a surgeon, he postulated Wolff's law (original title 1892: The law of transformation of the bone), which describes the relationship between bone geometry and mechanical influences on bone. For this he was with leading scientists of his time in active contact. Karl Culmann (1821–1881), Wilhelm Roux (1850–1924), Christian Otto Mohr (1835–1918) and Albert Hoffa (1859–1907) gave him support for the interpretation and evaluation of its research. His work established the mechanism and thus physical factors in evolutionary biology. He saw his work as an extension of the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin (1809–1882).

His work was one of the mile stones for orthopedics as a distinct discipline in medicine. Julius Wolff was the first professor of orthopedics at the Charité and the founder and director of the first Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in Berlin. His scientific work has to this day a significant impact on orthopedic surgery. His findings that adapted bone altered mechanical conditions found today in application of musculoskeletal research, orthopedics, trauma surgery, rehabilitation, mechano-and cell biology and tissue engineering.

He died on February 18, 1902 of a stroke.

1860 De artificiali ossium productione in animalibus, Diss. Kaiser Wilhelm Universität Berlin

1863 Die Osteoplastik in ihren Beziehungen zur Chirurgie und Physiologie. Archiv für Klinische Chirurgie 4: 183-296

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