From 1883 to 1891 he studied archaeology, linguistics, anthropology and medicine at the universities of Vienna and Graz.
From 1892 he served as an assistant to Isidor Neumann at Vienna,[1] where in 1897 he obtained his habilitation for dermatology.
[4] In 1940 he became a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina.
[2] In 1922 he was the first to describe the distinctive features of a condition later known as ichthyosis linearis circumflexa ("Rille-Comél disease").
[5][6] With Paul Gerson Unna, he was editor of the journals Dermatologische Wochenschrift and Dermatologischen Studien.