Albert Abrams becomes professor in neurology

Albert Abrams was born in San Francisco in 1863, depending on which of several recorded birth dates is correct. Abrams was the son of a successful San Francisco merchant from whom, at an early age, he inherits a vast fortune. In his teen years he learned German and graduated as an MD from Heidelberg in 1882, at 18-20 years old. He became Professor of Pathology at Cooper Medical College in San Francisco in 1893 and resigned in 1898.

Cooper medical college

Abrams was also elected vice-president of the California State Medical Society in 1889 and made president of the San Francisco Medico Chirurgical Society in 1893. By the early 1900s Abrams had become a respected expert in neurology. By all accounts, Abrams had a respectable background and promise of a distinguished career. His name is associated with the following eponyms:

Abrams cannula
A special cannula used in percutan pleura biopsy.

Abrams' heart reflex I
A rontgenologically demonstrable cutivisceral reflex phenomenon of the heart: contraction of the heart muscle when the skin of the precordial region is irritated.

Abrams' heart reflex II
A cutivisceral reflex course in angina pectoris. If the skin is irritated in the area where heart pain irradiates, the pain is relieved, the pain area is reduced and there follows a reflectory contraction of the myocardium in the form of Abram’s heart reflex I.

Abrams' lung reflex
A cutivisceral reflex phenomenon in the lung area.

Abrams' reflex hammer
Spinal percussion hammer

Abrams' transillumination
Defects in the pigment layer of the iris are revealed by transpupilar coaxial illumination with a slit lamp.

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