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Professor Josef Hyrtl 1873 |
Josef Hyrtl (b. at Eisenstadt in Hungary, December 7, 1810; d. 17 July, 1894, on his estate near Vienna.) He took up his medical studies in Vienna in 1831, having received his preliminary education in his home town. His was a poor family, and he had to find some means to help defray the expenses of his medical education. To this end he bagan producing preserved specimens. In 1833, while a medical student, he was appointed prosector in anatomy, and the preparations which this position required him to make for teaching purposes attracted the attention of professors as well as students. On graduation he became Prof. Czermak's assistant and later the curator of the museum. He added many preparations to the museum's collections. As a student he set up a laboratory and dissecting room in his lodgings, and his injections of anatomical material were greatly admired. In 1837, at 26, Hyrtl was offered the professorship of anatomy at the University of Prague, and by his work there laid the foundation of his great reputation as a teacher of anatomy. It was whilst here that he completed his text-book of human anatomy, which went through some twenty editions and has been translated into most modern languages. The chair of anatomy at Vienna became vacant in 1845, and he was immediately elected. Five years later he published his "Handbook of Topographic Anatomy", the first text-book of applied anatomy of its kind ever issued. It was as a teacher that Hyrtl did his great work. Professor Karl von Bardeleben, himself one of the great teachers of the nineteenth century, did not hesitate to say that in this Hyrtl was unequalled. His fame spread throughout Europe, and he came to be looked upon as the special glory of the University of Vienna. In 1865, on the occasion of the celebration of the five-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the university, he was chosen rector in order that, as the most distinguished member of the university, he should represent her on that day. His inaugural address as rector had for its subject "The Materialistic Conception of The Universe of Our Time". In this he brought out very clearly the lack of logic in the materialistic view of the world and concluded: "When I bring all this together it is impossible for me to understand on what scientific grounds is founded this resurrection of the old materialistic view of the world that had its first great expression from Epicurus an Lucretius. Nothing that I can see justifies it, and there is no reason to think that it will continue to hold domination over men's minds." In 1880 there was a magnificent celebration of Hyrtl's seventieth birthday, when messages of congratulation were sent to him from all the universities of the world. Josef Hyrtl was frequently cited as an opponent of vivisection. This, however, was not entirely accurate and the view arose from the quoting as proof, sentences taken out of context. Hyrtl often experimented on animals but considered unnecessary experimentation to be unacceptable. He wrote: "Every thoughtful physician will acknowledge that the science of medicine owes great and important discoveries to vivisection. But for it, what would we know of the lacteals, of the functions of the nervous system, of fecundation and embryological development?" The slides he produced utilised the same injection techniques he had used when still a student. The objects themselves are undoubtedly very pretty and reveal some macro detail. Page 8 of the catalogue includes a diagram showing the slides construction. Author of the following:-
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