Joseph von Gerlach (3 April 1820 – 17 December 1896) was a German professor ofanatomy at theUniversity of Erlangen. He was a native ofMainz,Rhineland-Palatinate. Gerlach was a pioneer ofhistological staining and anatomicalmicrography. In 1858, Gerlach introducedcarmine mixed withgelatin as ahistological stain.[1]
Along withCamillo Golgi, he was a major proponent of thereticular theory that the brain'snervous system consisted of processes of contiguous cells fused to create a massive meshed network. Gerlach summed up his theory by stating:
the finest divisions of the protoplasmic processes ultimately take part in the formation of the fine nerve fibre network which I consider to be an essential constituent of the gray matter of the spinal cord. The divisions are none other than the beginnings of this nerve fibre net. The cells of the gray matter are therefore doubly connected by means of the nerve process which becomes the axis fibre and through the finest branches of the protoplasmic processes which become a part of the fine nerve fibre net of the gray matter.
The reticular theory predominated until the 1890s whenRamon y Cajal brought forth hisneuron doctrine ofsynaptic junctions, which in essence replaced the reticular theory.
Gerlach was one of the first physicians to usephotomicrography for medical research. In 1863, he published a handbook titledDie Photographie als Hilfsmittel mikroskopischer Forschung (Engl. "Photography as a tool in microscopic science") in which he discusses the practical and technological aspects ofmicroscopic photography.
The eponymous "Gerlach's valve" (valvula processus vermiformis) is named after him. This anatomical structure is a fold of membrane sometimes found at the opening of thevermiform appendix.[2] In his articleUeber das Hautathmen[3] (Engl. "On skin respiration") he was the first to show that human skin uses oxygen from ambient air.
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