Persona

Altschul, Rudolf

1901-1963

Rudolf Altschul was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, 24 February 1901. He graduated as a Doctor of Universal Medicine from the German University in Prague in 1925, and did postgraduate work in neurology and neuropathology in Paris and Rome. In 1939 he and his wife were forced to flee the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, and were aboard the S.S. Athenia, the first ship torpedoed by the Germans in the Second World War. They eventually arrived in Canada, and Dr. Altschul accepted a position in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Saskatchewan. Prior to coming to Canada he had to his credit 32 scientific papers, and in the following years he contributed another 71 papers dealing with various subjects, including pathology of the nervous system, skeletal muscle degeneration, cell division and in particular, arterial degeneration. His most notable contribution was in demonstrating the cholesterol-lowering effect of nicotinic acid. Dr. Altschul died on 4 November 1963.