Alfred Fröhlich

Alfred Fröhlich (August 15, 1871 - 1953) was an Austrian pharmacologist and neurologist who was born in Vienna. In 1895 he graduated from the University of Vienna, and afterwards remained at Vienna as an assistant to Carl Nothnagel (1841-1905). In 1905 he became a member of the department of pharmacology at the university, and from 1919 until 1939 he was a full professor of pharmacology and toxicology. Following the Nazi takeover of Austria, Fröhlich emigrated to the United States, and worked at the May Institute of Medical Research of the Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati.

Fröhlich made contributions regarding research of the central and sympathetic nervous systems. He also performed studies of the pituitary, the hypothalamus and did research concerning glandular secretions. With Otto Loewi (1873-1961) he studied the pharmacology of cocaine, and its effects on the nervous system.

in 1901 Fröhlich provided a comprehensive description of dystrophia adiposogenitalis, of which he published a paper titled Ein Fall von Tumor der Hypophysis cerebri ohne Akromegalie. This disorder is characterized by feminine obesity along with retarded sexual maturity, and is caused by tumors of the pituitary. In honor of his discovery, this condition was to become known as Fröhlich's syndrome. However, it is also sometimes called the Babinski-Fröhlich syndrome, named along with Joseph Babinski, who gave an independent description of the disease a year earlier in 1900.