Max Borst

BORST, Max (Max Borst), a prominent pathologist. Born in 1869, he graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Würzburg in 1892. From 1893 to 1904, he served as an assistant at the Pathological Institute of the University of Würzburg, where he worked under the direction of Rindfleisch, one of the leading pathologists of that time. In 1904, he was elected professor of pathological anatomy in Cologne, from where in 1905 he moved to the same chair in Göttingen, and in 1907 to Würzburg. In 1910, he was elected professor and director of the Pathological Institute in Munich, a position he continues to hold. Borst's scientific works relate primarily to the pathology of inflammation, regeneration, transplantation, and tumors. Regarding inflammation, Borst succeeded in bringing considerable clarity to the complex question of the significance of irritation in the genesis of the inflammatory tissue reaction. In the chapter on regeneration, he elucidated the course of the regeneration of tendons, cartilage, serous membranes, and many details of wound healing in general; a number of Borst's experimental works concern the transplantation of blood vessels, joints, and certain organs.

However, Borst's studies on tumors are of the greatest importance; in this field, he is a leading specialist. In addition to individual papers concerning various questions of tumor growth, in 1902 Borst published a major two-volume work on tumors—"The Theory of Tumors" ("Die Lehre von den Geschwülsten")—which became a classical manual in this branch of pathology; for this work, Borst was elected an honorary professor of the University of Bonn. Borst summarized the newest data concerning tumors in the book "Die allgemeine Pathologie der malignen Geschwülste", published in 1924. Borst's textbook on pathological histology ("Lehrbuch der pathologischen Histologie", 2nd edition, 1926) is also well known.