Gabriel Gustav Valentin

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Gabriel Gustav Valentin

Gabriel Gustav Valentin (born July 8, 1810 in Breslau ; † May 24, 1883 in Bern ) was a German physiologist and embryologist .

Life

The father Abraham Valentin traded in silver goods. He assisted the rabbi in the Breslau synagogue . Son Gabriel Gustav Valentin, who also learned Hebrew at school , studied the Talmud as a devout Jew . This religious tradition in his parents' home also shaped his further life. He attended Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium in his hometown, which he left with the final exam . At the age of 18 he began studying medicine at the University of Wroclaw. One of his most influential teachers was the physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkyně . After four years of study , Valentin received his doctorate in Breslau with a thesis on the formation of muscle tissue, and he passed the state examination in Berlin in 1833. Then he opened a practice in Wroclaw. His excellent powers of observation, an excellent memory and his mathematical abilities gave Valentin a wide range of scientific knowledge.

Services

Valentin did research together with Purkynĕ. In 1835 his "Handbook of Human Development History" appeared. An offer from the University of Dorpat (then Prussia ) failed because of his Jewish faith. Until 1848, Jews who were not baptized were officially excluded from teaching posts in Prussia. At the end of 1835, Valentin received the “Grand Prix des Sciences Physiques” from the jury of the French Academy of Sciences for a thesis on the histology of plant and animal development. The associated sum of money initially enabled him to continue researching independently. His research trips brought him into contact with the physiologists Johannes Müller in Berlin, Marie-Jean-Pierre Flourens and François Magendie in Paris, and Rudolf Wagner (doctor) in Nice. But then came an offer from the University of Bern . After making sure that his Jewish faith would not be an obstacle to his work in Switzerland , he went to Switzerland as a professor of physiology and animal anatomy ( zootomy ). At the age of 26, Valentin became the first Jewish professor at a German-speaking university. 1836 was also the year in which Valentin identified the nucleus and corpuscles of nerve cells. In 1838 he proposed the use of double knives with adjustable blade spacing and was thus one of the pioneers in the development of microtomes . From 1836 to 1843 he continued the periodical "Repertory for Anatomy and Physiology" founded in Breslau . In 1844 Valentin published his two-volume work "Textbook of Human Physiology" and in 1846 the "Outline of Human Physiology" followed. His “Fundamentals of the Development of Animal Tissues” are still worth reading today.

Valentin's reputation also meant that he was the first Jew in Bern to be granted civil rights. For microscopy even stopped Alfonso Giacomo Gaspare Corti (1851 "Corti organ") for six months at Valentin, of the Anatomical Institute in Bern was from 1853 to 1863 the director.

Honors

In 1835 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . In 1859, Valentin was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1862 he became an honorary member of the "Académie Royale de Médecine de Belgique". He was also an honorary member of many medical and scientific societies throughout Europe and an honorary doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of Bern.

Publications

  • Handbook of the history of human development with comparative consideration of the development of mammals and birds. Rücker, Berlin 1835. ( digitized and full text in the German text archive )
  • Textbook d. Physiology d. People , 2 vols., Braunschweig 1844
  • Outline of human physiology , Braunschweig 1846
  • The use of the spectroscope for physiological and medical purposes , Heidelberg, 1863
  • Attempt of a physiological pathology of the nerves , 2 Thle., Leipzig a. Heidelberg 1864
  • Trial of a physiological pathology of the blood and the other body fluids , 2 Thle., Leipzig 1866-1867

literature

  • Georg Eisner, Rupert Moser (Hrsg.): Charm and foreign of Jewish culture. 150 years of Jewish communities in the canton of Bern (Collegium Generale University of Bern). Lang Verlag, Bern 2000, ISBN 3-906765-00-8 , pp. 104-107
  • Charles Gillispie (Ed.): Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. 13 . Scribner, New York 1976, pp. 555-558.
  • Erich Hintzsche : Gabriel Gustav Valentin (1810-1883). Attempt a bio and bibliography . Haupt, Bern 1953 (Bern contributions to the history of medicine and the natural sciences; 12).
  • Julius Leopold Pagel :  Valentin, Gabriel Gustav . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 39, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1895, p. 463 f.
  • Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Valentin, Gabriel Gustav. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1434.

Web links

Wikisource: Gabriel Gustav Valentin  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara I. Tshisuaka (2005), p. 1434.
  2. ↑ amuseum.de (PdF; 736 kB)
  3. ↑ Member entry of Gustav Valentin at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on December 1, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Valentin, Gabriel Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and physiologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1883
Place of death Bern