'''Alfons Maria Jakob''' (born [[July 2]], [[1884]], [[Aschaffenburg]]/[[Bavaria]]; died [[October 17]], [[1931]], [[Hamburg]]) was a [[Germany|German]] [[neurologist]] with important contributions on [[neuropathology]].

Alfons Maria Jakob was the son of a shopkeeper. He studied [[medicine]] in [[Munich]], [[Berlin]], and [[Strasbourg]], where obtained his doctorate in [[1908]]. In [[1909]] he commenced clinical work under the [[psychiatrist]] [[Emil Kraepelin]] and did laboratory work with [[Franz Nissl]] and [[Alois Alzheimer]] in [[Munich]].

In [[1911]] he went to [[Hamburg]] to work with [[Theodor Kaes]] and became head of the laboratory of [[anatomical pathology]] at the psychiatric State Hospital Hamburg-Friedrichsberg. Following the death of Kaes in [[1913]], Jakob succeeded him as [[prosector]]. After serving in the [[Germany|German]] army in [[World War I]], he returned to Hamburg and climbed the academic ladder. He was habilitated in [[neurology]] in [[1919]] and in [[1924]] became professor of neurology. Under Jakob's guidance the department grew rapidly. He made notable contributions to knowledge on concussion and secondary nerve degeneration and became a doyen of [[neuropathology]].

Jakob published five monographs and more than 75 papers. His neuropathological studies contributed greatly to the delineation of several diseases, including [[multiple sclerosis]] and [[Friedreich's ataxia]]. He first recognised and described [[Alper's disease]] and [[Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease]] (the latter with [[Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt]]). He accumulated immense experience in [[neurosyphilis]], having a 200-bedded ward devoted exclusively to that disorder. Jakob made a lecture tour of the [[U.S.A.]] and [[South-America]] where he wrote a paper on the neuropathology of [[yellow fever]].

He suffered from chronic [[osteomyelitis]] for the last 7 years of his life. This eventually caused a retroperitoneal [[abscess]] and [[Paralysis|paralytic]] [[ileus]] from which he died following operation.

==Associated eponym==

* [[Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease]]: A very rare and incurable form of [[transmissible spongiform encephalopathies]] caused by [[prions]].

==Bibliography==

* ''Die extrapyramidalen Erkrankungen''. In: ''Monographien aus dem Gesamtgebiete der Neurologie und Psychiatry'', Berlin, 1923
* ''Normale und pathologische Anatomie und Histologie des Grosshirns''. Separate printing of ''Handbuch der Psychiatry''. Leipzig, 1927-1928
* ''Das Kleinhirn''. In: ''Handbuch der mikroskopischen Anatomie'', Berlin, 1928
* ''Die Syphilis des Gehirns und seiner Häute''. In: Oswald Bumke (edit.): ''Hanbuch der Geisteskrankheiten'', Berlin, 1930

[[Category:1884 births|Jakob, Alfons Maria]]
[[Category:1931 deaths|Jakob, Alfons Maria]]
[[Category:German neurologists|Jakob, Alfons Maria]]
[[Category:German neuroscientists|Jakob, Alfons Maria]]

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