DISTINGUISHED SWISS PHYSICIANS WHO PLAYED A PROMINENT PART IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCIENCE AND ART OF MEDICINE IN GERMANY
Among the men who may properly be included in the present class of
distinguished German physicians I have no hesitation in naming von
Haller and Zimmermann, notwithstanding the fact that both of them were
natives of Switzerland—that is, German Switzerland.
* * * * *
[Illustration:
ALBRECHT VON HALLER
]
ALBRECHT VON HALLER, whose many contributions to the science of medicine
have assured him a permanent and very high position in the temple of
fame, was born October 16, 1708, of parents who belonged to two of the
old patrician families of Berne, Switzerland. In childhood he suffered
from rachitic symptoms and was constantly ailing; but, despite these
drawbacks, he manifested at a very early age evidences of possessing to
an unusual degree certain intellectual gifts and of having a genuine
love for work. Thus, for example, he began—shortly after he had learned
to write—recording in alphabetical order all the words that he had been
taught and the meaning of which had been explained to him. At the age of
ten he prepared for his own use a vocabulary composed of Chaldean,
Hebrew and Greek words, and two years later he compiled, from the
dictionaries of Moreri and Bayle, a collection of concise biographies of
the men who had achieved celebrity in the more important branches of
science, and he surprised his teachers by his ability to compose verses
in Latin as well as in his native language, German. Before he reached
his fifteenth year he had attained considerable distinction, both as an
anatomist and as a poet, a combination of gifts extraordinarily rare. He
received his early training in anatomy and general medicine at the
University of Tübingen, under the guidance of the two Duverneys, father
and son, and of Elias Camerarius, all three of whom were professors of
considerable celebrity in their respective departments. Jean Guichard
Duverney (1691–1759), for example, was the first anatomist to furnish a
complete and very thorough description of the solar plexus.
An incident which occurred during his student days at Tübingen reveals
so strikingly von Haller’s strength of purpose and his unwillingness to
permit anything to divert him from the path which he had decided to
follow, that I shall not hesitate to relate it briefly here. In company
with a few of his fellow students he participated in one of those
beer-drinking bouts which are of such frequent occurrence in German
university towns, and was in due course of time made acquainted with the
legitimate effects that follow such excessive indulgence—effects that
are felt as “seediness” and a sense of physical misery (symptoms to
which the Germans have given the striking but untranslatable name of
_Katzenjammer_). This single experience sufficed to impress upon von
Haller’s mind the folly of such indulgence and he never afterward
permitted himself to take part in an excess of this nature.
Although von Haller, upon the death of his father, had been left with
very slender financial means, he managed, under the guidance of Albinus,
on leaving Tübingen in 1725, to visit Leyden, in Holland, where he was
able to prosecute his anatomical researches and at the same time to
follow the instruction of Boerhaave, who was still at that period in
full possession of his powers as a teacher. Extraordinary as it will
appear to the physicians of to-day, von Haller, when only nineteen years
old, passed successfully the required examinations at Leyden and was
given the degree of Doctor of Medicine (1727).
From Holland von Haller went first to London, where he accepted the
invitation of James Douglas, the anatomist, to assist him in his studies
of the structure of the bones. Then from there he next visited Paris
(1728), where he had for his teachers Le Dran, the distinguished French
surgeon, and Winslow, the well-known anatomist. It was his original
intention to make a prolonged stay in the French metropolis, but,
unfortunately, his ambition to get ahead as fast as possible in the
study of anatomy led him to disregard certain precautions which, in the
early part of the eighteenth century, it was not at all safe for men
interested in this branch of medical science to neglect. Recognizing the
fact that, in order to advance his knowledge of anatomy, he must have a
certain amount of human dissecting material at his command, and finding
that he could procure this material in no other way than by the process
commonly known as “body-snatching,” he decided, in association with one
of the prosectors of the medical school, to adopt that method of
procuring the material needed. The plan was successfully carried out,
the disinterred body was transferred to von Haller’s apartment, and the
two enthusiastic anatomists had already done a certain amount of
dissecting when an unexpected obstacle was encountered. The layman who
occupied the adjoining room overheard enough of the conversation that
was being carried on between von Haller and his friend to suspect
strongly the true nature of the work in which they were engaged. But, to
make sure that his surmise was correct, he bored a peek-hole through the
partition wall, and thus was able to remove from his mind all doubt
about the nature of this work. The police were promptly notified, and
von Haller was summoned to appear before the authorities to answer the
charge of having disobeyed the law relating to dissections of the human
body. Not being able to furnish a satisfactory reply to this charge, and
wishing to escape from the severe penalties that would certainly have
been inflicted upon him had he been apprehended, von Haller went at once
into hiding in Paris and eventually succeeded in making his way over the
border into Switzerland.
[Illustration:
LAUSANNÆ,
Vignette from the title-page of Haller’s “_Elementa Physiologiæ_,”
Lausanne,
1757
]
In 1729 he began the practice of medicine in his native city, after
having taught anatomy for a short time in Basel; but he took only a
subordinate interest in the treatment of disease, his preference being
strongly for the scientific and literary parts of medicine. In 1734 or
soon afterward he published a collection of his own odes and letters in
German verses. These reveal very fully the nobility of his character,
his good sense and the high standard of his philosophy. Dezeimeris says
that von Haller offers the very first example of a man who has been able
to develop to an equal degree his talents of poet and of anatomist.
In 1735 he was appointed Chief Custodian of the Public Library at Berne,
and while he held this office he prepared a _catalogue raisonné_ of all
the books contained in that collection. At the same time he wrote a
classified, chronologically arranged list of the 5000 or more coins and
medals which are preserved in the library.
In 1736 the Hanover Regency offered him the professorship of anatomy,
botany and surgery in the University of Goettingen, and agreed at the
same time to furnish all the money needed for carrying out the extensive
plans which he had formed for improving the facilities for teaching
these branches of medical science. Von Haller unhesitatingly accepted
the invitation, and during the following seventeen years (1736–1753)
devoted his time and his best efforts to the fulfilment of the duties
which his triple chair involved. Not only did anatomy, botany and
surgery greatly thrive during this long period of time, but the
university through his intelligent efforts gained in many other
directions. It was upon his advice, for example, that the beautiful
anatomical theatre at Goettingen was built and equipped. The botanical
garden was another of the creations at Goettingen which owed its
existence to von Haller. If I were to furnish a list of the improvements
which, one after the other, were carried out in the university at his
suggestion I would certainly be obliged to mention among other things
the following: an establishment in which pupils might receive proper
training in anatomical and botanical drawing; the creation of a cabinet
of anatomical specimens and of a college of surgery; and finally the
founding of a school for midwives. In short, it was largely due to von
Haller’s enlightened conception of what such an institution of learning
requires and to his untiring efforts that the University of Goettingen
became, toward the end of the eighteenth century and during the first
half of the nineteenth, one of the leading universities of Europe.
Indeed he might justly be called its founder.
Von Haller’s health suffered under this long strain, and he was
therefore more than justified in asking the Regency of Hanover for
permission to resign and take up his residence in Switzerland. His
request was unhesitatingly granted; and, after resting for a few months
from his recent labors, von Haller resumed those quiet literary
undertakings which he loved so keenly and which enabled him to publish
such famous works as the following:—
“PRIMAE LINEAE PHYSIOLOGIAE” (First Lines of Physiology),
Goettingen, 1747 (also 1751)—the very first systematic treatise
on physiology of which we have any knowledge. A German edition
was not published until 1759–1776.
Commentaries on Boerhaave’s “INSTITUTIONES MEDICINAE,”
1739–1744.
“ELEMENTA PHYSIOLOGIAE CORPORIS HUMANI,” 8 vols., Lausanne,
1757–1766; the most important of all his works.
“BIBLIOTHECA ANATOMICA,” 2 vols., 1774–1777.
“BIBLIOTHECA CHIRURGICA,” 2 vols., 1774–1775.
“BIBLIOTHECA MEDICINAE PRACTICAE,” 4 vols., 1776–1788.
“EXPÉRIENCES SUR LES PARTIES SENSIBLES ET IRRITABLES,” 4 parts,
Lausanne, 1759.
These titles represent only a small part of the numerous books and
elaborate essays published by this tireless worker. In 1749 he was
ennobled by the Emperor, thus gaining the right, so highly esteemed in
Germany, of placing a “von” before his name.
In the middle of the eighteenth century there appears to have existed
considerable confusion in the minds of scientific men regarding the
distinction between the terms “sensibility” and “irritability,” and to
von Haller is due the credit of having once and for all defined the
correct meaning of these words. As early as in 1747, when he published
the first edition of his treatise on physiology, von Haller taught that
the contractile force of muscles is supplied by the nerves, and that in
this way they acquire _irritability_, a force which they cannot exercise
except through the influence of the nerves. Irritability, therefore, is
not a characteristic that originates in muscular tissue but is conferred
upon it by the nerves. Von Haller’s experiments reveal the fact that the
heart possesses the maximum degree of irritability. Next in order come
the intestines and the diaphragm, the ordinary red muscles possessing a
lesser degree of irritability.
In order that the reader may form at least some idea of von Haller’s
manner of treating physiological topics I give below a rough
translation[6] of the first three paragraphs which occur in Chapter XX
of his _Primae Lineae Physiologiae_ (edition of 1751):—
SLEEP
564.—The power which a person in perfect health possesses freely
to exercise the different senses and to perform voluntary
movements is called _wakefulness_ or the state of being awake;
the absence of the power to make voluntary movements and to
utilize the different senses, combined with the quietude of all
of them, bears the name of _sleep_.
565.—In sleep the mind either stops thinking entirely of the
things which have been stored up by the individual in his memory
or which are well-known facts, or else it busies itself
exclusively with certain ideas or with impressions that produce
upon the mind, at the time, pictures almost as vivid as the
actual things or occurrences which they represent would produce.
The term “insomnia” is employed when it is desired to designate
the latter condition of the mind, and the mental pictures thus
presented produce the effect that—although voluntary motions are
at the time all in abeyance, and although the mind is absolutely
quiet in all other respects—there remain certain directions in
which it continues to operate actively, thus producing an
elevation of the spirits (_i.e._, a certain degree of
excitement) and more or less wakefulness. Sometimes a certain
number of voluntary movements are associated with these mental
impressions, and this may occur in such a degree that the organs
of speech and many of the joints—indeed at times all of them—are
compelled to act in harmony with the mental impressions. When
this degree of insomnia is reached the person so affected is
called a “somnambulist.”
566.—But in sleep the distribution of the humors of the body
goes on without let or hindrance; and, similarly, the
circulation of the blood, the peristaltic action of the stomach,
intestines and sphincters, and the respiratory movements
continue their activity. This complex state of affairs—viz., the
coexistence of quietude of certain parts of the body with
continued motion in other parts—has made it difficult to
ascertain the mechanical cause of sleep.[7]
In his investigations into these subjects, von Haller placed his
reliance mainly on vivisections and on experiments made upon animals. “A
single experiment of this nature,” he said, “is often sufficient to
disprove the deceptive conclusions or views that have prevailed through
a period of years.” It is to John Hunter of England, however, says
Puschmann, that the greatest credit is due for the introduction of the
experimental method as a means of ascertaining the truth in questions of
pathology; and von Haller was unquestionably one of the first German
physicians to adopt the method.
Von Haller died at Berne on December 12, 1777.
* * * * *
JOHANN GEORG ZIMMERMANN was born in 1728 at Brugg in the Canton de
Berne, Switzerland. Left an orphan at the age of eighteen, and obliged
without aid from outside to choose the career which he would follow, he
decided to study medicine; and with this object in view he went to
Goettingen, Germany, where he was received into the family of Albrecht
von Haller, who was at that time a professor in the university. Five
years later (1751), when he took his doctor’s degree, he chose for the
subject of his thesis, at von Haller’s suggestion, the doctrine of
irritability. Upon his return to Berne in 1752, he began the practice of
medicine and shortly afterward accepted the position of official
physician for his native town of Brugg. It was during this period of his
life that he wrote those treatises which made his name famous throughout
Germany, viz., “On Solitude,” Zuerich, 1756; “On Experience in the
Practice of Medicine,” Zuerich, 1763 and 1767; “On National Pride,”
Zuerich, 1768 (5th edition); and “On the Epidemic of Dysentery which
prevailed during the year 1765,” Zuerich, 1767 (later edition in 1789).
In 1768, through the influence of Dr. Tissot, of Lausanne, he was given
the appointment of Physician to the King of England at the Court of
Hanover. During the last years of his life he took a great interest in
political events, recognizing with remarkable foresight the approach of
an immense revolution. So strong was his belief that current events
pointed to the approach of such a catastrophe, and so depressing were
the effects of this belief upon his naturally hypochondriac type of
mind, that the last years of his life were thereby rendered most
painful. He died on October 7, 1795, not long after the full effects of
the Reign of Terror had developed in France.
Tissot, who had known Zimmermann well for more than forty years, has
written a most interesting notice of his life and has placed a just
estimate upon the value of his writings. (Dezeimeris.) Sprengel, the
author of a well-known and highly esteemed history of medicine, speaks
in the following terms of Zimmermann’s treatise “On Experience in the
Practice of Medicine”:—
The manly and brilliant style in which it is written, its
fascinating eloquence, and the special talent which the author
displays in rendering marvelously clear—without at the same time
robbing them of any of their accuracy—the most obscure topics,
make this book of Zimmermann’s a veritable chef-d’oeuvre.... The
importance of genuine experience, its difference from false or
blind routine, the advantages which real erudition confers and
the necessity of combining it with experience, the nature of the
obstacles which an observing spirit must overcome, the absolute
need of good observations and the useful qualities which they
should possess, the effects of genius, and the manner in which
conclusions are to be drawn by analogy and by induction—these
are the questions with which the author of this classical
treatise deals.
------------------------------------------------------------------------