Baron Clemens von PirquetDied 28 Feb 1929 at age 54 (born 12 May 1874). Austrian physician who originated a skin test for tuberculosis that bears his name, a classic diagnostic test in which tuberculin is applied to a superficial abrasion of the skin of the arm. In 1906 he noticed that patients who had received injections of horse serum or smallpox vaccine usually had quicker, more severe reactions to second injections. While studying the symptoms of cowpox vaccination, he also developed a new theory about the incubation time of infectious diseases and the formation of antibodies. In 1909 he published the results of a series of tuberculin tests of inhabitants of Vienna that showed that 70% of the children tested had been infected by tuberculosis by age 10, and over 90% at age 14. He also studied infant nutrition. |
