Carl von Rokitansky

Baron Carl von Rokitansky

Baron Carl von Rokitansky
Born (1804-02-19)19 February 1804
Hradec Králové, Bohemia
Died 23 July 1878(1878-07-23) (aged 74)
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Fields physician
pathologist
Alma mater University of Vienna
Influenced Cesare Lombroso

Baron Carl von Rokitansky (German: Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, Czech: Karel Rokytanský) (19 February 1804 – 23 July 1878), was a Bohemian physician, pathologist, humanist philosopher and liberal politician.[lower-alpha 1]

Medical career

Carl von Rokitansky was born in Hradec Králové (German: Königgrätz), Bohemia. He studied at the Charles University in Prague (1821–1824) and attained a doctorate in medicine on 6 March 1828 at the University of Vienna. Soon afterwards, he became assistant to Johann Wagner, the professor of pathological anatomy, and succeeded him in 1834 as prosector, being at the same time made extraordinary professor. He became a full professor ten years later.[1]

In 1847, to his duties as a teacher, Rokitansky added the onerous office of medico-legal anatomist to the city of Vienna.[1]

In 1863, Rokitansky was appointed by Anton von Schmerling as medical adviser to the Ministry of the Interior, wherein he advised on all routine matters of medical teaching, including patronage.[1]

As a young professor, Rokitansky recognized that the still little noted discipline of pathological anatomy could be of great service to clinical work in the hospital, because it could offer new diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities to the bed-side physician. With this, after Gerard van Swieten, who was the founder of the first Vienna School, Rokitansky released a veritable scientific "revolution". With the establishment of the second Vienna School, a paradigm shift went into effect, led by Rokitansky, Josef Škoda, and Ferdinand von Hebra, from the notion of medicine as a branch of natural philosophy, to the more modern notion of it as a science. In this way, associated with the specialization of the medicine and with the development of new disciplines, the Vienna School achieved worldwide reputation.

Contributions

Rokitansky (age 49) and his Vienna colleagues (1853). He is the third man from the right in the bottom row, holding a book and looking left to his right.

Rokitansky's name is associated with the following diseases/morphologic features of disease:

Rokitansky also developed a method of autopsy which consisted mainly of in situ dissection. Rokitansky is said "to have supervised 70,000 autopsies, and personally performed over 30,000, averaging two a day, seven days a week, for 45 years".[2]

Philosophical career

Although Rokitansky defended the "materialistic method" in scientific research, he rejected materialism as a philosophical world view. In his commemorative speech on the occasion of the opening of the Institute of Pathological Anatomy at the General Hospital of Vienna, he warned against the abuse of "natural science liberties". Scientists should first regard humans as "conscious and free-willing subjects" and only then follow their urge toward knowledge. The feeling of humanity would be lost if physicians regarded human beings purely as research objects. Thus Rokitansky brought up for the first time the question of ethics in medicine. In another speech about the "solidarity of all animal life", delivered at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Rokitansky showed his proximity to Arthur Schopenhauer's writings on compassion: "if we [... ] preserve and practice compassion", he explained "we are able to alleviate part of the load of suffering" of patients. Human generosity will be shown by our capability to accept the greatest sufferings by voluntarily renouncing aggression. Those who succeed in this should be our greatest ethical role models.

In 1845, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. On 17 July 1848 Rokitansky was elected to be an effective member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. In 1866, he became its vice-president and from 1869 until his death in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, on 23 July 1878, its president.[1] Rokitansky felt that this "was the largest honour which I could enjoy".

Political career

By way of his leading positions in the most diverse academic and political institutions of the Austrian Empire, Rokitansky helped to shape the era of Austrian high liberalism. He represented liberalism among the educated middle class and strove for "freedom and progress", both to the university reform and to the substantial improvement of health sciences. Rokitansky was several times the dean of the medical school, and, in 1853, the first freely elected rector of the medical congregation of the University of Vienna and president of the Superior Medical Council. From 1850 until his death, he also presided the Physician's Society of Vienna. On 25 November 1867 he was "unexpectedly and unprepared" nominated by Franz Joseph I to the upper house of the Royal Council (German: Reichsrath) in recognition of his public service.[1] Finally, he was elected in 1870 to the presidency of the Anthropological Society.

Family

Two of Rokitansky's sons became professors at Vienna, one of astronomy and another of medicine, while a third gained distinction on the lyric stage,[1] and another as a composer:

Bibliography

His published works include:

Notes

Footnotes
  1. ↑ Regarding personal names: Freiherr is a former title (translated as Baron), which is now legally a part of the last name. The feminine forms are Freifrau and Freiin.
Citations
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Chisholm 1911, p. 462.
  2. ↑ Stöppler, MD, Melissa Conrad (2015-06-01). "Medically Reviewed by [Jay W. Marks, MD]." MedicineNet, 1 June 2015. Autopsy (Post Mortem Examination, Necropsy). Retrieved from http://www.medicinenet.com/autopsy/page4.htm.

References

Further reading

External links

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