An important description of colour phenomena in the fundus oculi. This paper won for Kussmaul the Karl Friedrich Medal of the University of Heidelberg.

First description of periarteritis nodosa.

In 1867 Kussmaul used the stomach pump for gastric dilatation due to pyloric obstruction. Although his advocacy of gastric lavage established this method of treatment in medical practice, the instrument had already been used many years previously.

Important observations on gastric tetany were made by Kussmaul. He called attention to the convulsions sometimes accompanying dilatation of the stomach. He first mentioned “gastric tetany” in 1869 in his paper on gastric lavage (No. 3463).

Kussmaul introduced the concept of the “paradoxical pulse.”

Kussmaul explained diabetic coma as being due to acetonemia. He described the air-hunger (“Kussmaul’s respiration”) present in this condition. Partial English translation in No. 2241.

Kussmaul termed aphasia “word-blindness”. The book was issued as a supplement to vol. 12 of Ziemssen’s Handbuch der speciellen Pathologie und Therapie. English translation in Ziemssen’s Cyclopedia of the practice of medicine, Vol. 14, New York, 1877.