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Carl William Gottschalk, MD 1922–1997
In Memoriam
T
Carl William Gottschalk
HE DEATH of Carl Gottschalk has been felt deeply by all who knew him. To me, as Klaus Thurau points out, he was a great gentleman who happened to be a great scientist. Over the years he unstintingly offered me advice and was more than willing to accept fellows and receive students in his laboratory from my laboratory in San Juan. On some occasions we spoke about one of his passions: the history of medicine and nephrology, a subject on which he was as erudite as he was on renal physiology. Renal physiology will continue its present dramatic growth to be sure, but it will lack the quality of class that Carl bestowed on it. —Manuel Martinez-Maldonado, MD
Carl William Gottschalk, MD
N
1922–1997
EPHROLOGY, and in particular renal physiology, has suffered a sad and bitter loss through the recent death of Carl W. Gottschalk, Distinguished Research Professor of Medicine and Physiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Carl embodied in an exemplary manner those ideals one meets far too infrequently in the scientific scene. His trademark was precise, thorough, analytical experimentation. His sharpest criticism was reserved for his own work while to the work of others he was constructive, encouraging, and generous. His style of scientific discussion was always based on encyclopedic knowledge of the literature and reflected the structure of his personality: quiet, courteous, objective, friendly, and never insulting, not even in jest. Carl unified in his person the scientist, the scholar, the educator, and the gentleman. He set milestones in renal physiology. He recognized at a very early stage the potential of micropuncture techniques for the analysis of renal function at the single-nephron level. His laboratory in Chapel Hill played a key role in the spread of this technology, marking the departure from whole kidney physiology and the beginning of the reductionist approach to renal function. In the mid-1950s, Carl addressed the concept of urinary concentration by countercurrent multiplication, a mechanism proposed
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originally more than a decade earlier by Kuhn, Wirz, and Hargitay in Basel, Switzerland. Carl showed the equality of fluid osmolarity at the bend of the loop of Henle and in an adjacent collecting duct, and the dilution in the distal tubule, all necessary consequences of the hypothesis. He reported his results in a brief, two-column article in Science in 1958, an article that paved the way for U.S. acceptance of the countercurrent hypothesis for urinary concentration. The proponents of the countercurrent system from both sides of the Atlantic, Wirz and Gottschalk, met for the first time at a kidney symposium in August 1959 in Go¨ttingen, Germany. Both were standing at the reception in Hotel Gebhard, where I was able to introduce them to each other. Gottschalk: ‘‘Oh, you are Dr Wirz!’’ Wirz: ‘‘Oh, you are Dr Gottschalk!’’ This was the start of a long and close friendship between the two. Carl’s subsequent experimental work covered a wide spectrum of topics in nephron function, tubular hydrodynamics, transepithelial transport of solutes, in particular urea, the role of tubular innervation, and tubular permeabilities. Carl always saw his own work as developing out of the historical roots of science. Indeed, he had a rare sense of the historical context. He not only published numerous historical articles on renal function but was himself an avid collector of historical
American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Vol 31, No 2 (February), 1998: pp xlvi-xlvii
OF NEPHROLOGY AND NEPHROLOGISTS
books and documents relating to nephrology. Without doubt, Carl’s collection is the most complete and historically valuable in the world. It was thus no accident that the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) appointed him as its first archivist and as chairman of the commission on the history of nephrology. The scientific community has recognized his eminent role in renal physiology through a long list of honors and by establishing distinguished lectureships (American Physiological Society and University of North Carolina) in his name. Given the breadth and depth of Carl’s scientific accomplishments and his personality, it is small wonder that he was inundated by requests for assistance and advice from individuals and a large number of committees. He was always prepared to accept these burdens and to serve as required.
xlvii
Carl’s death struck all of us out of the blue, totally unprepared. Three short weeks earlier, we had enjoyed his company and that of his wife, Susan, at an international symposium on renal hemodynamics, cellular, and molecular determinants at Seeon Monastery in Bavaria. At the meeting Carl was, as always, an active participant vitally interested in the science presented and in the up-and-coming young scientists. It was almost tangible how well Carl felt among old and close friends. This is the picture of Carl that I and all those present at that meeting will remember. –Klaus Thurau, MD Professor and Chairman Physiology Institute University of Munich Munich, Germany
T
Carl William Gottschalk
HE DEATH of Carl Gottschalk has been felt deeply by all who knew him. To me, as Klaus Thurau points out, he was a great gentleman who happened to be a great scientist. Over the years he unstintingly offered me advice and was more than willing to accept fellows and receive students in his laboratory from my laboratory in San Juan. On some occasions we spoke about one of his passions: the history of medicine and nephrology, a subject on which he was as erudite as he was on renal physiology. Renal physiology will continue its present dramatic growth to be sure, but it will lack the quality of class that Carl bestowed on it. —Manuel Martinez-Maldonado, MD
Carl William Gottschalk, MD
N
1922–1997
EPHROLOGY, and in particular renal physiology, has suffered a sad and bitter loss through the recent death of Carl W. Gottschalk, Distinguished Research Professor of Medicine and Physiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Carl embodied in an exemplary manner those ideals one meets far too infrequently in the scientific scene. His trademark was precise, thorough, analytical experimentation. His sharpest criticism was reserved for his own work while to the work of others he was constructive, encouraging, and generous. His style of scientific discussion was always based on encyclopedic knowledge of the literature and reflected the structure of his personality: quiet, courteous, objective, friendly, and never insulting, not even in jest. Carl unified in his person the scientist, the scholar, the educator, and the gentleman. He set milestones in renal physiology. He recognized at a very early stage the potential of micropuncture techniques for the analysis of renal function at the single-nephron level. His laboratory in Chapel Hill played a key role in the spread of this technology, marking the departure from whole kidney physiology and the beginning of the reductionist approach to renal function. In the mid-1950s, Carl addressed the concept of urinary concentration by countercurrent multiplication, a mechanism proposed
xlvi
originally more than a decade earlier by Kuhn, Wirz, and Hargitay in Basel, Switzerland. Carl showed the equality of fluid osmolarity at the bend of the loop of Henle and in an adjacent collecting duct, and the dilution in the distal tubule, all necessary consequences of the hypothesis. He reported his results in a brief, two-column article in Science in 1958, an article that paved the way for U.S. acceptance of the countercurrent hypothesis for urinary concentration. The proponents of the countercurrent system from both sides of the Atlantic, Wirz and Gottschalk, met for the first time at a kidney symposium in August 1959 in Go¨ttingen, Germany. Both were standing at the reception in Hotel Gebhard, where I was able to introduce them to each other. Gottschalk: ‘‘Oh, you are Dr Wirz!’’ Wirz: ‘‘Oh, you are Dr Gottschalk!’’ This was the start of a long and close friendship between the two. Carl’s subsequent experimental work covered a wide spectrum of topics in nephron function, tubular hydrodynamics, transepithelial transport of solutes, in particular urea, the role of tubular innervation, and tubular permeabilities. Carl always saw his own work as developing out of the historical roots of science. Indeed, he had a rare sense of the historical context. He not only published numerous historical articles on renal function but was himself an avid collector of historical
American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Vol 31, No 2 (February), 1998: pp xlvi-xlvii
OF NEPHROLOGY AND NEPHROLOGISTS
books and documents relating to nephrology. Without doubt, Carl’s collection is the most complete and historically valuable in the world. It was thus no accident that the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) appointed him as its first archivist and as chairman of the commission on the history of nephrology. The scientific community has recognized his eminent role in renal physiology through a long list of honors and by establishing distinguished lectureships (American Physiological Society and University of North Carolina) in his name. Given the breadth and depth of Carl’s scientific accomplishments and his personality, it is small wonder that he was inundated by requests for assistance and advice from individuals and a large number of committees. He was always prepared to accept these burdens and to serve as required.
xlvii
Carl’s death struck all of us out of the blue, totally unprepared. Three short weeks earlier, we had enjoyed his company and that of his wife, Susan, at an international symposium on renal hemodynamics, cellular, and molecular determinants at Seeon Monastery in Bavaria. At the meeting Carl was, as always, an active participant vitally interested in the science presented and in the up-and-coming young scientists. It was almost tangible how well Carl felt among old and close friends. This is the picture of Carl that I and all those present at that meeting will remember. –Klaus Thurau, MD Professor and Chairman Physiology Institute University of Munich Munich, Germany