He received his classical education at the University of Bonn, and began his medical studies at Göttingen in 1851 continuing in Heidelberg and graduated M.D.

[2] Althaus moved to London, where as an assistant to Robert Bentley Todd he carried out the treatment of patients at King's College Hospital using electricity.

He died in London on 11 June 1900 as the result of damaging his knee in Switzerland on holiday the year before which was complicated by gout,[5] followed by gastroenteritis and peritonitis.

Althaus has been called a cultural polymath and he was a talented linguist which allowed him to understand the latest developments in neurology on an international basis.

Following Althaus' death, an obituarist described him as "a voluminous writer, and published many books and papers on various aspects of nervous disease.