Traube, Ludwig (1818-1876)

German pioneer of experimental pathology who used animals to study the mechanisms of disease. Using this approach, he worked on the pathology of fever, the control and dysfunction of muscles, and various forms of heart disease.

Traube discovered that when the vagus nerve (one of two nerves to the heart that regulate the speed of the pacemaker) was severed, the speed of the pacemaker - consequently heart contractions - could not be slowed. The mechanism for controlling the transport of respiratory gases around the body, therefore, was lost, and breathing was affected as the animal tried to compensate.

Traube was born in Ratibor and educated at Breslau and then at the University of Berlin.