Fritz Buchthal

Former professor of neurophysiology Copenhagen, Denmark (b Witten, Germany, 1907; q Berlin 1932), d 24 December 2003.

Fritz Buchthal's principal contribution to medicine was to help turn scientific experiment into the now daily indispensable clinical investigation of patients with nerve and muscle disease. For many years he was the dominant figure in the field, teaching postgraduates from all over the world and receiving many honours. When too old to hold an official position in Denmark he was invited to direct the laboratory at the National Institutes of Health in Washington DC. He then settled in Santa Barbara, California, and consulted weekly at the Children's Hospital in San Francisco until he was 90. His wife, Margaret, predeceased him.