Carl Jakob Adolf Christian Gerhardt (there are several variations regarding the arrangement of his 3 middle names); (May 5, 1833 - July 22, 1902) was a German internist who was a native of Speyer. He studied medicine at the University of Würzburg, earning his doctorate in 1856. Subsequently he was an assistant to Heinrich von Bamberger (1822-1888) and Franz von Rinecker (1811-1883) in Würzburg, and worked under Wilhelm Griesinger (1817-1868) in Tübingen. In 1885 he was successor to pathologist Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs (1819-1885) in Berlin, and founded the second internal medicine clinic at the Charité. At Berlin, one of his assistants was immunologist Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915). His son, Dietrich Gerhardt (1866-1921) was also a noted physician.

Gerhardt is remembered for his work in pediatrics, his research concerning auscultation & percussion, and his experiments involving diabetes. In 1892 he provided an early description of erythromelalgia, which was once referred to as Gerhardt’s disease. Gerhardt was also editor of an influential textbook on pediatrics called Handbuch der Kinderkrankheiten, in which he contributed several articles based on his own experiences.

Associated eponym:

• Gerhardt’s law (on vocal paralysis): Which states that in paralysis of the periodically recurring laryngeal nerve, the vocal cords assume a position between abduction and adduction. Position also known as the "cadaver position".

Selected writings

• Lehrbuch der Kinderkrankheiten. Tübingen, 1861. 4 editions.
• Studien und Beobachtungen über Stimmbandlähmung. Virchow's Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für klinische Medicin, Berlin, 1863, 27: 68-69, 296-321
• Lehrbuch der Auscultation und Percussion. Tübingen, 1876
• Über Erythromelalgie. Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, 1892; 29: 1125
• Handbuch der Kinderkrankheiten (9 volumes in 16). Published by Carl Gerhardt. Tübingen, H. Laupp.

References

• Who Named It?; Carl Gerhardt