Bidder, Friedrich Heinrich

(b. Kurland, Russia, 28 October 1810; d. Dorpat, Russia [now Tartu, Estonian S.S.R.], 27 August 1894)

anatomy, physiology.

His father, Ernst Christian, was an agriculturalist. In 1834 Friedrich received a medical degree from the University of Dorpat and was appointed professor extraordinary and prosector in anatomy. Before assuming his duties, Bidder spent a year in Berlin studying anatomy with J. Müller, C. Ehrenberg, J. Henle, and F. Schlemm. His itinerary included a tour of the research facilities at Dresden, Halle, and Leipzig. He became a full professor of anatomy in 1842, and accepted the new chair of physiology and pathology in 1843. He served as dean of the medical faculty from 1843 to 1845 and as rector of the university in 1858. Bidder found an outlet for his humanitarian interests in the social problems of the city. He helped to found a public baby nursery and was president of Dorpat’s Hülfsverein, a charitable institution. Bidder received the Karl E. von Baer medal in 1879 for his contributions to biology.

Bidder was not a gifted teacher in the conventional sense, but he was highly successful at providing fruitful research topics for his students. Over seventy-five dissertations were completed under his direction. Bidder’s superior grasp of scientific literature and his command of anatomy, physiology, histology, and embryology enabled him to single out important questions for study. With few exceptions, Bidder selected his research topics from published differences of opinion. This habit reveals Bidder’s confidence and broad knowledge of biology; it also explains why Bidder’s name is not associated with any major innovations. His best-known works were published in cooperation with other scientists. Bidder’s partnerships brought to light his most innovative and creative abilities. When Bidder did reach out to creative projects, his efforts frequently were not appreciated. His contributions to intermediary metabolism and nerve physiology were too advanced for the majority of his contemporaries.

In 1852, Bidder and Carl Schmidt, a student of Justus von Liebig, published their classic Verdauungssäfte und der Stoffwechsel. The treatise was a brilliant extension of the concepts suggested by Liebig’s Animal Chemistry (1842). Verdauungssäfte was the first major publication on intermecliary metablism (intermediären Kreislauf). Bidder examined the effects of digestive juices (salivary, pancreatic, biliary, intestinal, and gastric) on foodstuffs. He elucidated the chemical changes induced by enzymes and the effects of nervous control on the secretion of digestive juices. He was able to show that bile was not an excretion but a secretion serving a physiological function.

Bidder opened the bile duct and inserted a cannula to draw off the biliary liquids. By controlling the diet of cats fitted with this fistula, he found that digestive disturbances occurred when the nutrients contained large amounts of fat. The chemical composition of bile was not similar to fat but to carbohydrate or protein. Yet, further fistula experiments indicated that bile did have some unknown complex function in fat metabolism. When bile flowed into the gut, animals could digest more fat than when bile was removed through the fistula. Oil mixed with bile rose higher in capillary tubes than did untreated samples of oil. In vitro mixtures of fat, water, and bile rendered the fat water-soluble and neutral to litmus paper. Fat globules in the lymphatics, however, were acidic. Bidder hypothesized that bile aids in the absorption of fats in the stomach and is then reabsorbed in the gut. By comparing the concentrations of bile salts in the feces and urine with the concentration of bile in the gut, Bidder concluded that such a hypothesis was correct.

Although Bidder worked on a wide spectrum of problems, he maintained a persistent interest in the physiology and anatomy of the nervous system. He provided an improved description of the rods and cones of the retina (1839), repeated many of Flourens’s experiments on the regeneration of sectioned nerves, investigated olfaction, and was successful in joining the severed ends of the lingual and hypoglossal nerves (although the crossed fibers were not functional). He cataloged all of the inhibitory nerves known to him and traced their fibers to the autonomic ganglia (1871). He discovered the auriculoventricular and interauricular ganglion cells in the hearts of frogs (“Bidder’s ganglia”) and demonstrated that the ganglia contained fibers of the vagus nerve.

His best-known work on the nervous system was the outcome of collaboration. Bidder and Alfred W. Volkmann made an extensive histological study of the autonomic nervous system and the spinal cord. They demonstrated that although certain fibers of the inter-costal nerve were unmyelinated, they were genuine nerve fibers. They established the general rule that postganglionic fibers are not covered by a myelin sheath. Detailed numerical analysis revealed that the peripheral nerves contained more fibers than could be accounted for by the spinal cord and the sympathetic chain alone. This discovery provided anatomical evidence for the theory of double innervation of the organs from (1) the sympathetic chain and (2) the ganglionic system.

In 1857 Bidder and Carl Kupffer made a histological study of the embryonic and adult spinal cord in order to settle the dispute whether or not the spinal nerve fibers are continuous with the gray matter of the brain. Employing a new chromic-acid stain developed by Schroeder van der Kolk, the authors were able to show the continuity of cord fibers with cell bodies located in the gray matter of the brain. Bidder was an advocate of the neuron theory.

Bidder’s name is also associated with an organ found only in certain frogs (Bufonides). It is a circular mass of tissue located slightly ventral to, and between, the kidneys and testes. Bidder suspected it was testicular tissue; following an interesting array of speculative theories, it was shown in the twentieth century to be endocrine tissue.

A great deal of Bidder’s work was excellent but his virtuosity and diverse interests prevented its recognition. His tendency to resolve minor conflicts rather than carry out sustained research on any one topic reduced his impact. His interest in controversies, however, increases the historical value of his work. Bidder’s discussions of opposing views provide insights into the research problems of the nineteenth century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Bidder’s most important monographs are De graviditatis vi medicatrice (Dorpat, 1834): Neurologische Beobachtungen (Dorpat, 1836); Neue Beobactungen über die Bewegungen des weichen Gaumens und über den Geruchssinn (Dorpat, 1838); “Reichen,” in Rudolph Wagner’s Handwörterbuch der Physiologie, II (Brunswick, 1844), 916–926; Vergleichend-anatomische Untersuchungen über den Harn und die Geschlechtswerkzeuge der nachten Amphibien (Dorpat, 1846): and Zur Lehre von dem Verhältniss der Ganglienkörper zu den Nervenfasern. Neue Beiträge (Leipzig, 1847). His most famous joint efforts are Untersuchungen über die Textur des Rückenmarks und die Entwicklung seiner Formelelemente (Leipzig, 1857), with C. Kupffer; Verdauungssäfte und der Stoffwechsel. Eine physiologisch-chemische Untersuchung (Leipzig, 1852), with C. Schmidt; and Die Selbständigkeit des sympathischen Nervensystems, durch anatomische Untersuchung nachgewiesen (Leipzig, 1842), with A. W. Volkmann. The bulk of Bidder’s papers appeared in the Archiv für Anatomie, Physiologie und wissenschaftliche Medicin, Johannes Müller, ed. Those relevant to the subjects discussed are the following: “Zur Anatomie der Retina” (1939), pp. 371–388. (1841), pp. 248–262; “Versuche über die Möglichkeit des Zusammenheilens functionell verschiedener Nervenfasern” (1842), pp. 102–120; “Versuche zur Bestimmung der Chylusmenge die durch den Ductus thoracicus dem Blute zugeführt wird” (1845), pp. 45–60; “Ueber functionell verschiedene und räumlich getrennte Nervencentra im Froschherzen” (1852), pp” 163–177; “Erfolge von Nervendurchschneidung an einem Frosch” (1865), pp. 67–79; “Beobachtung doppelsinniger Leitungim Nervus lingualis nach Vereinigung desselben mit dem N. hypoglossus” (1865), pp. 246–260; “Ueber die Unterschiede in den Beziehungen des Pfeilgifts zu verschiedenen Abtheilungen des Nervensystems” (1865), pp. 337–359; “Zur näheren Kenntniss des Froschherzens und seiner Nerven” (1866), pp. 1–25; “Die Endigungsweise der Herzzweige des Nervus vagus beim Frosch” (1868), pp. 1–50; “Einige Bemerkungen über Hemmungsnerven und Hemmungscentren” (1871), pp. 447–472; and “’Erfahrungen über die functionelle Selbständigkeit des sympathetischen Nervensystems” (1841), pp. 359–380, with A. Volkmann.

II. Secondary Literature. Further biographical details can be found in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, XLVI (Leipzig, 1902), 538–540; Leopoldina, 3 , nos, 17–18 (1894), 145, 162; and the Saint Petersburger medicinische Wochenschrift, 19 (1894), 314–315. Bidder’s nutritional research is discussed in Graham Lusk, “A History of Metabolism,” in Endocrinology and Metabolism, III (New York, 1922), 3–78; Nikolaus Mani, Die historischen Grundlagen der Leberforschung II Teil. Die Geschichte der Leberforschung von Galen bis Claude Bernard (Basel, 1967); Elmer V. McCollum, A History of Nutrition (Boston, 1957); and Fritz Lieben, Geschichte der physiologischen Chemie (Leipzig, 1935). An enumeration of Bidder’s minor contributions can be found in Karl Rothschuh, Entwicklungsgeschichte physiologischen Probleme in Tabellenform (Munich, 1952). References to Bidder’s research on the nervous system are inadequate. Brief discussions appear in John Langley, The Autonomic Nervous System (Cambridge, 1921); R. Herrlinger, “Albert von Bezold und die Entedeckung der Innervation des Herzens,” in K. Rothschuh, ed., Von Boerhaave bis Berger (Stuttgart, 1964), pp. 106–120: and V. Kruta, “G. Prochaska and J. E. Purkyne’s Contributions to Neurophysiology,” ibid., pp. 134–156. A history of the interpretations given to Bidder’s organ can be traced through H. King, “The Structure and Development of Bidder’s Organ in Bufo Levitiginosus,” in Journal of Morphology, 19 (1908), 439–465; W. Harms, “Untersuchungen über das Biddersche Organ der männlichen und weiblichen Kröten,” in Zeitschrift für Anatomie und Entwicklungsgeschichte, 62 (1921), 1–38; and N. Takahashi, “Biological and Anatomical Studies of the Nuptial Excrescence and Bidder’s Organ of the Toad,” in Endocrinology, 7 (1923), 302–304.

Charles A. Culotta