[The outstanding achievements of Adolf Kussmaul].

BACKGROUND Adolf Kussmaul was born in Graben, close to Karlsruhe, Germany, on February 22,1822. He graduated at Heidelberg University in 1845 and he received his medical degree in 1855. He made original descriptions, such as the ophthalmoscope, the gastroscope or endoscope, and Kussmaul signs, besides the respiration named after him. He was the first to perform a thoracocenteses, peritoneal and gastric lavages. He rediscovered progressive bulbar paralysis (previously described by Guillaume Duchenne in 1861), polyarteritis nodosa (which was described by Karl von Rokitansky en 1852), dyslexia, (described by Thomas Willis in 1672) and pulsus paradoxus named after him, but that was reported by Richard Lower in 1669. During his 80 years of life, he wrote about different issues and topics (cardiology, rheumatology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, psychiatry, and neurology). Kussmaul was a student and professional without limits in his observation capacity. He preached with his own example in pursuit of science: observation, hypothesis, experimentation and analysis.