Gildemeister and Hilus

GILDEMEISTER, Eugen (Eugen Gildemeister, born 1878), a well-known German bacteriologist, professor, head of the epidemic department of the State Institute of the Health Administration (Reichsgesundheitsamt) in Berlin, editor of the journal Zentralblatt für Bakteriologie, secretary of the International Society of Bacteriologists, and a student of Wernicke and Uhlenhuth. He is known for his works, primarily in the field of bacterial variability, the etiology of herpes, and smallpox. With his assistance, Barthlein began his well-known works on the variability of bacteria.

He was the first to describe the phenomenon of the formation of variable colony forms (Flatterformen) by certain bacteria, which, as was clarified later by d'Herelle, depends on the development of a bacteriophage in the culture. A summary of works on the etiology and pathogenesis of smallpox was provided by Gildemeister in the manual on smallpox control by Lentz and Gins (Hndb. der Pockenbekämpfung und Impfung, hrsg. von O. Lentz u. H. Gins, B., 1927), in the chapters on "etiological research" and "experimental diagnosis of smallpox." His numerous studies in the field of microbiology are distinguished by the special precision characteristic of the workers of the Uhlenhuth school. HILUS (Latin hilus, the same as porta—gate), that part of an organ which anatomically or physiologically connects it to the organism by means of blood and lymphatic vessels, nerves, and excretory ducts passing through here. In organs located in closed cavities (thoracic and abdominal) lined with a serous membrane, the latter does not cover the organ in a certain part of it, which as a rule lies on the side opposite to its convex surface; the space free from the serous covering in the cross-section of the attachment (root) of the organ is the H. In the lungs, the H. are located on the mediastinal surface, and the bronchi, blood and lymph vessels with lymph nodes, and nerves pass through them. In this case, the bronchi are located posterior to the blood vessels, and the pulmonary arteries are above the pulmonary veins. In the spleen, the H. is located on its inner surface, between the gastric and renal facets, and contains blood vessels, lymph vessels, and nerves. In the kidneys, the H. is located along the concave medial part and is bounded here by the ventral and dorsal lips of the renal substance, of which the posterior is much wider and more strongly protruded than the anterior; as a result of this, the H. is turned more or less anteriorly (for varieties, see Kidneys). In the ovary, the H. is enclosed in the straight edge (margo mesovaricus), opposite the free edge (margo liber). It is delimited by the so-called boundary strip of the peritoneum—margo limitans peritonaei (Waldeyer's). Vessels and nerves, enclosed in loose connective tissue, pass through the H. of the ovary. In the adrenal glands, the H. is located on the posterior surface. In lymph nodes, it is also always possible to demonstrate the existence of an H., although it is not expressed equally clearly in different cases. At the site of the hilus of the lymph nodes, the capsule is somewhat thickened, since part of the capsular trabeculae attaches to its stroma; efferent lymphatic pathways (vasa efferentia) exit, and vessels and nerves enter and exit through the hilus of the lymph node.