Ernst Horn (doctor)

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Ernst Horn in 1825, another copper engraving by Meno Haas (1752–1833).

Ernst Horn (born August 24, 1774 in Braunschweig as Anton Ludwig Ernst Horn , † September 27, 1848 in Berlin ) was a German physician and psychiatrist . Due to a death during a treatment initiated by Horn, the first medical liability process was initiated in Germany.

Life

origin

His parents were the medical and general receptor Ernst Wilhelm Horn (* May 21, 1732; † April 17, 1812) and his wife Sophie Dorothee Mayerhoff (* August 26, 1737; † May 30, 1787).

family

He married Wilhelmine Falk († February 22, 1803), who died in childbed. The son Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Theodor (born February 17, 1803, † January 19, 1871) became Dr. med and real secret medical advisor, married Therese Westphal (born August 29, 1808, † April 30, 1891) and became the father of the later district president Karl von Horn .

After the death of his first wife, he married Dorothea Martens (born January 18, 1786, † April 25, 1853). The son Karl Wilhelm Georg Heinrich (born October 26, 1807; † May 18, 1889) became President of the provinces of Posen and East Prussia and married Dorothea (Doris) Martens (born November 16, 1828; † June 19, 1889).

The two sons were raised to the Prussian nobility on December 28, 1865.

Life

He attended high school in his hometown and then the Collegium Carolinum , from 1794 the University of Göttingen , where he received his doctorate in medicine in 1797 . He then went on an educational trip that took him through Germany, Hungary , France and Switzerland .

When he returned, he initially worked as a doctor at the clinical institution in Braunschweig, and made a name for himself by publishing handbooks on practical drug theory and surgery and the “Archive for Medical Experience” published in 1799 . He refused an appointment as professor at the University of Kiel , went to the University of Wittenberg as the third professor of medicine in 1804 and to the University of Erlangen in 1805 . On March 25, 1806 he was elected a member ( matriculation no. 1032 ) of the Leopoldina with the nickname Crito II . In September 1806 he became the second boss at the Charité in Berlin, where he was a teacher of the medical clinic and head of the “insane department”. After twelve years he tried to be released from the employment relationship and in 1819 took over the full professorship of the medical clinic, which again gave him the opportunity to follow his journalistic inclination.

As an eclectic , he broke new ground in psychiatry and can be regarded as the first psychiatrist in Germany, as he achieved equality between the mentally ill and other sick people at the Charité. He developed his scientific principles in the dissertation of his student Johann Sandtmann "Nonnulla de quibusdam remediis ad animi morbos curandos summo cum fructu adhibendis" (Berlin 1817) and in his statement "Public account of my twelve years of service as second doctor at the Royal Charité Hospital in Berlin" leave. He was also a member of the “Royal Prussian Scientific Deputation for Medicinal Affairs” and the first expert there for general and forensic psychiatry .

In the end, however, his entire work was overshadowed by a legal dispute, the statements that dragged on for years and that permanently determined his perception in public.

Ernst Horn

The doctor's liability process of 1811

The background to the first medical liability lawsuit in Germany was a protracted argument between Horn and Dr. Heinrich Kohlrausch, who worked at the Charité from 1810 as the “second conducting surgeon and obstetrician”. In the course of this dispute there were multiple complaints and submissions from Horn to the superior authority, which were rejected in each case.

On September 1, 1811, Louise Thiele, 21 years old, died on September 21; she had been in treatment for a "serious mental illness" since August 21, while Horn was instructed to lock her in a so-called "sack" to calm her:

At eleven o'clock in the morning, because of her constant screaming, her straitjacket was put on, but only loosely, and she was put in a sack and laid on the ground. Here she lay screaming all the time until about half past three, when she suddenly became quiet. Alerted by this sudden calm, the caretaker went to her, took the sack from her, and found her almost lifeless. She put her on the bed, where she twitched a few more times and then passed away.

The following day, Kohlrausch against Horn reported a complaint in which he attributed the death of the sick to incorrect treatment by Horn. He would not only have had the patient, who was restless because of her anxiety, tied up with a " compulsory vest ", but also put it in the said sack for a long time and left it on the ground. After the patient died shortly after opening the taming device that Kohlrausch referred to as the “death bag”, Horn would have diagnosed a death as a result of apoplexia post mania . In fact, death did occur from asphyxiation , which the autopsy proved. In the broader context, Kohlrausch then mentions other, in his view also dubious treatment methods from Horn:

Particularly noticeable in the therapies used by Horn seem to have been the rotation devices, to which the so-called "English swing machine" belongs. This is a chair to which the patient was strapped and which could then be rotated quickly. However, a rotating bed installed by Horn must have been downright overwhelming, with pillars, beams and gears that filled an entire room and achieved rotating speeds of 120 revolutions per minute. From today's point of view, the conceivable therapeutic benefit in the treatment of mental illnesses is inexplicable and evidently appeared to be very dubious even then. The late Thiele had previously been (unsuccessfully) treated with cold baths, twisting, hair rope , emetics and a sack.

In response to Kohlrausch's complaint, a medical report was first obtained, in which only the cause of death was determined, without going into the circumstances of death, as these were attributed to the expert Dr. from Könen were not known. He simply assumed that, insofar as “sticking in the sack” was an apparently frequently practiced method, it should therefore be regarded as harmless. The initiation of an investigation on October 10 was initially rejected. However, since this death caused considerable public attention, Justice Minister von Kircheisen instructed the Supreme Court on October 26th to open a formal investigation against Horn in response to a letter from the State Councilor Sack .

After the proceedings had been opened on November 2nd, the doctor Johann Christian Reil was commissioned to write an expert opinion that took into account all aspects of the case . However, a draft of this expert opinion came into the hands of Kohlrausch by mistake, who sent it to the Ministry of Justice with extensive comments, which thereupon suggested the Chamber to commission another expert. The board rejected this request. The expert opinion absolves Horn of all allegations, in particular it is stated that

  • the treatment (apart from the “sack”) was completely school-based, since the use of restraint and beating has been completely common with insane people since ancient times, which is proven by a Celsus quote
  • Contrary to the first report, it does not necessarily have to be a death from suffocation, rather an escape of the " life principle " is the primary cause and the flow of blows is the immediate cause. "Atonic gout, epilepsy, hysterical attacks by dispersing the principle of life produce the blow."
  • the "sack" is by no means to be regarded as the cause, rather: "She died in a sack like others die in her shirt, but it does not follow that she died because of it."

The sack is actually made of canvas and air-permeable, as Reil proved in an experiment with a chicken that did not suffocate, but was still fresh after 12 hours in the sack, although birds are known to be more susceptible to " suffocation " than humans. Overall, he thinks that the sack is a comparatively gentle instrument for treating mentally ill people. Finally, other means of choice are:

  • Falling into water
  • Pull up on the rope
  • " Cox's swing "
  • red-hot iron
  • Cane blows
  • "Authenrietsche Mask"
  • Starvation diets etc.

At the end of his report, Reil remarks about the role of the doctor:

The means with which he experiments are usually more heroic than a ragged sack; Poppy seed juice , sublimate , arsenic , as deadly as salutary; and the object with which he experiments, the highest under the moon, the life of man, and at the same time the most fragile. Could there be a more unhappy relationship than that of the general practitioner if, under these circumstances, he still had to fear a criminal investigation in every death?

The Court of Appeal proved to be open to Reil's argument and on April 20, 1812, acquitted Horn of all allegations. Kohlrausch left Berlin in June 1813 and resigned from the Charité. But the argument did not end yet; rather, it continued years later in writing and counter-writing:

Death and grave

Ernst Horn died after long and serious suffering on September 27, 1848 at the age of 74 in Berlin of complications from gout . He was buried in Trinity Cemetery I in front of Hallesches Tor . The grave has not been preserved.

Honors

Fonts

  • De mutatione atque transitu catarrhi in phthisin pulmonalem. Goettingen 1796.
  • De lucis in corpus humanum vivum praeter visum efficacia. Goettingen 1796.
  • About the effects of light on the living human body, with the exception of sight. Koenigsberg 1799.
  • Contributions to the medical clinic collected on my travels through Germany, Switzerland and France. 2 volumes, Braunschweig 1800.
  • Attempt at a practical nosology of fever. Brunswick 1800.
  • as ed. with Christian Friedrich Nasse , Adolf Henke and Wagner: Archive for medical experience. Journal (66 volumes plus Univ.-Reg.), Rein / (from volume 3 :) Rücker / Reimer, Leipzig / Berlin 1801–1836 (year 1809–1831 also: Archive for practical medicine and clinic ).
  • About the knowledge and healing of pneumonia. Frankfurt 1802.
  • Clinical pocket book for doctors and surgeons / Horn, Ernst. Berlin 1803.
  • Handbook of practical pharmacology for doctors and surgeons. Berlin 1803.
  • De opii abusu. Wittenberg 1804.
  • Manual of medical surgery. 2 volumes, Berlin 1804 and 1806.
  • Attempt on the nature and healing of dysentery. Erfurt 1806.
  • The beginnings of the medical clinic. 2 volumes, Erfurt 1807 and 1808.
  • On the value of medical experience and on the means of attaining it. Berlin 1807.
  • Justifying knowledge of the royal. Prussian Supreme Court in the criminal investigation conducted against me as a representation of the relationship between me and the secret Medicinalrath Doctor Kohlrausch. Berlin 1812.
  • Experiences about the healing of the contagious nerve and lazareth fever and about the means to prevent its development and spread from the lazareths and to secure oneself from infection. Berlin 1814.
  • How do you protect yourself from cholera and what do you have to do to cure it when it occurs? to do to prevent further spreading ?. Berlin 1831.
  • The contagiousness of Asian cholera. Berlin 1832.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Member entry by Ernst Horn (with picture) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on May 21, 2018.
  2. ↑ Register entry Heinrich Kohlrausch in the German biography
  3. ↑ Mauritius Kalisch: The malpractice of the doctors. 1860, pp. 1-4.
  4. ↑ Adolph Henke : Treatises. Vol. 4, 1820, p. 131.
  5. ↑ Reinhard Pabst: Hölderlins Verrückung. In: Focus November 30, 1998.
  6. ↑ Olaf Briese : Fear in the times of cholera. Vol. 1. Akademie Verlag , Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-05-003779-2 , p. 114.
  7. ↑ Mauritius Kalisch: The malpractice of the doctors. P. 17.
  8. ↑ Mauritius Kalisch: The malpractice of the doctors. P. 22.
  9. ↑ The "English swing machine" used by Horn is probably a Cox swing or a variant.
  10. ↑ A leather gag mask that was also used in the treatment of Hölderlin. See Celan Yearbook 8 (2003), p. 157
  11. ↑ Mauritius Kalisch: The malpractice of the doctors. P. 27.
  12. ^ Family obituary . In: Königlich privilegirte Berlinische Zeitung of state and learned things , September 28, 1848, p. 21.
  13. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 226.
personal data
SURNAME Horn, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Crito II .; Horn, Anton Ludwig Ernst (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German medic
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1774
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 1848
Place of death Berlin