Karl Friedrich Burdach

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Karl Friedrich Burdach, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber , 1832
Signature Karl Friedrich Burdach.PNG

Karl Friedrich Burdach (born June 12, 1776 in Leipzig , † July 16, 1847 in Königsberg i. Pr. ) Was a German anatomist and physiologist as well as an important neuroanatomist . His autobiography is an important source for the history of science and medicine in the early 19th century.

Life

Burdach, son of the Leipzig doctor Daniel Christian Burdach , who died early , studied medicine and philosophy at the University of Leipzig from 1793 to 1798 . After that he spent a year with Johann Peter Frank in Vienna . He received his doctorate in 1799 and then worked as a general practitioner and medicine writer. He mainly treated poor patients and was dependent on his royalties as an author and translator .

He completed his habilitation in 1798 and was appointed private lecturer. In 1807 Burdach became associate professor at the University of Leipzig. In 1811 he received the chair for anatomy, physiology and forensic medicine at the German-speaking University of Dorpat in Tsarist Russia . In Dorpat, Burdach was considered a representative of the romantic natural philosophy . It was exposed to criticism by the university orthodoxy and at the same time interesting for the students because it was considered "modern". Burdach's most famous students in Dorpat include Karl Ernst von Baer , who was supposed to discover the human egg cell in 1827, and the embryologist and palaeontologist Christian Heinrich Pander , who first described the pioneering cotyledon model in 1817 .

In 1814 Burdach moved to the Albertus University in Königsberg . Here he built the Royal Anatomical Institute, founded in 1817. Baer, ​​his former student, became his prosector and ran the institution from 1826. Burdach devoted himself almost exclusively to physiology. He protected the wreaths that were beginning to break away from the general fraternity . In 1818 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg .

Burdach, influenced by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling , tried to strike a middle path between empiricism and natural philosophy. An eternal, "ideal principle in the world as a whole" creates everything that is individual in nature. He rejected "scientific materialism" as "clumsy", but was seen by the romantic natural philosophers as being too empirically oriented, but at the same time had to put up with the accusation of wanting to introduce the "dizziness of natural philosophy" in Königsberg.

Burdach's wife died in 1838, after which he withdrew from scientific life. In the last few years he has worked on general, natural-philosophical and psychological issues. He could no longer complete his autobiography.

His son Ernst Burdach (1801–1876) was also a doctor.

Services in physiology and anatomy

Burdach saw physiology as the most important of all sciences because it dealt with life processes and principles, especially in humans. His six-volume magnum opus Physiology as empirical science (Leipzig 1826–1840), with over 3500 pages and well-known employees, includes Karl Ernst von Baer and Christian Heinrich Pander as well as Martin Heinrich Rathke , Johannes Peter Müller and Rudolf Wagner , the entire physiological knowledge of his time . A special focus was on embryonic and developmental processes.

Burdach developed his anatomical-morphological ideas in a keynote address at the opening of the anatomical institute in Königsberg: About the task of morphology (1817). Anatomy should be both a purpose-free science and at the same time serve the benefit of the patient. Burdach was a “master of neuroanatomy”, his most important anatomical achievements are in the area of ​​the anatomy of the brain. His most important work is the three-volume Vom Baue und Leben des Brains (Leipzig 1819–1826). Anatomical structures of the central nervous system that bear his name are the Burdach nucleus and the Burdach cord .

Others

Besides Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus and Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, Burdach was one of the first to use the term biology in a modern sense. He also played a role in coining the concept of morphology . Johann Wolfgang von Goethe first used it in 1796, Burdach published it for the first time in 1800.

Burdach was accepted into the Freemasons ' league in 1808 . He was a member of the Lodge Minerva to the three palms in Leipzig and later of the Lodge to the three crowns in Königsberg, whose master of the chair he was between 1834 and 1841.

Works

General medical and pharmaceutical publications and compilations

  • Propaedeutics for the study of the entire art of healing. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1800 ( digitized and full text in the German text archive )
  • Asklepiades and John Brown. A parallel . Leipzig (GB Meissner) 1800, 170 p. (See Brownianism )
  • Handbook of the latest discoveries in medicine . Leipzig 1806
  • Dispensatory for the royal Saxon lands or Philipp Jakob Piderit's Pharmacia rationalis . Hinrichs, Leipzig 1807 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • Addendum to the dispensatory for the royal Saxon lands . Hinrichs, Leipzig 1807 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • System of the drug theory . 3 volumes. Leipzig 1807–1809 (2nd edition 1817–1819) Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • System of the drug theory . 2nd edition. Leipzig: [Sn], 1820. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • Handbook of Pathology . Leipzig 1808, 426 pp. (New edition 2006)
  • The organism of human science and art . Leipzig 1809
  • The physiology . Leipzig (Weidmann) 1810, 867 pp.
  • New recipe book for prospective doctors: or: Instructions for prescribing medicinal products; explained in alphabetical order using examples . Leipzig: Summer, 1807. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • New recipe handbook for prospective doctors: or: Instructions for prescribing medicinal products; explained in alphabetical order using examples . 2., unchanged. Edition Leipzig: Summer, 1811. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • The literature of healing science . 2 volumes and a supplementary volume. Gotha (Perthes) 1810 / 1811-1821
  • Encyclopedia of Medical Science . 3 volumes. Leipzig (Mitzky) 1810–1814 (new edition 1817–1819)
  • Solving a riddle about vinegar . Dorpat (Grenzius) 1813 Digitized edition. University of Dorpat
  • Anatomical examinations: related to natural science and healing arts . Hartmann, Leipzig 1814
  • Dissertation de primis momentis formationis fetus . Koenigsberg 1814
  • (as editor :) Russian collection for natural science and healing arts . (together with Alexander Crichton and Joseph Rehmann ). 2 volumes. Riga, Leipzig (Hartmann) 1816–1817
  • On the task of morphology . Leipzig (Dyk) 1817, 64 pp. (Lecture)
  • Remarks on the Mechanism of the Heart Valves . In: Reports from the Royal Anatomical Institute of Königsberg No. 3, 1820
  • New recipe handbook for prospective doctors: or: Instructions for prescribing medicinal products; explained in alphabetical order using examples . - 2nd, unchanged. Edition - Leipzig, 1820. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • Views of electro-magnetism . In: Reports from the Royal Anatomical Institute in Königsberg No. 5, 1822
  • Physiology as empirical science . 6 volumes. Leipzig (Voß) 1826–1840 (with contributions by Karl Ernst von Baer, ​​Heinrich Rathke, Christian Heinrich Pander, Johannes Müller and Rudolph Wagner) (2nd edition 1835–1840)
  • Handbook of the latest domestic and foreign literature on the entire natural sciences and medicine and surgery . Gotha (Perthes) 1828, 392 pp.
  • About psychology as a natural science . In: Heckers Annalen 1828 (lecture)
  • The calculation of time for human life . Leipzig (Voß) 1829, 58 p. (Lecture)
  • Historical-statistical studies of the cholera epidemic of 1831 . Koenigsberg 1832
  • Forensic medical work . Stuttgart / Tübingen (Cotta) 1839, 283 p. (Only one volume published)

Neuroanatomical writings

  • Contributions to a closer knowledge of the brain . 2 parts. Leipzig (Breitkopf and Härtel) 1806, 292 and 295 pp.
  • Description of the lower end of the spinal cord . In: Reports from the Royal Anatomical Institute in Königsberg No. 1, 1818
  • About the structure and life of the brain . 3 volumes. Leipzig (Dyk) 1819–1826 (part 1: 1819, 2: 1822, 3: 1826)
  • Outlines a physiology of the nervous system . Leipzig (Voss) 1844, 76 pp.

Anthropological and autobiographical writings

  • Man according to the different sides of his nature. Anthropology for the educated public . Stuttgart (Balz) 1837, 787 p. (New editions 1847, 1854)
  • Look into life . 4 volumes. Leipzig (Voss) 1842–1848
  • Comparative psychology . 2 volumes. Leipzig (Voss) 1842 (= glances into life, vols. 1–2)
  • Defects of the senses and power of the mind . Leipzig (Voß) 1844, 310 pp. (= Views into Life, Vol. 3)
  • Review of my life. Autobiography . Leipzig (Voss) 1848, 603 pp. (= Views into Life . Vol. 4). zeno.org

literature

  • General encyclopedia of writers and scholars of the provinces of Livonia, Esthland and Courland , edited by Johann Friedrich von Recke and KE Napiersky. Volume I, Mitau 1827, pp. 308-311
  • K. Feremutsch : Organ of the soul: Contributions to the history of romantic medicine after the works of Karl Friedrich Burdach . In: Monthly for Psychiatry and Neurology , Vol. 125, 1953, pp. 371-385
  • Werner E. Gerabek : Burdach, Karl Friedrich. 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. 221 f.
  • Arthur William Meyer: Human Generation. Conclusions on Burdach, Döllinger and von Baer . Stanford CA / London 1956.
  • Alfred Meyer: Karl Friedrich Burdach and his Place in the History of Neuroanatomy . In: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry , Vol. 33, 1970, pp. 553-561
  • A. Chazanov: Карл Бэр и Карл-Фридрих Бурдах . In: Folia Baeriana Vol. 2 (1976), pp. 39-45
  • Olaf Breidbach : Karl Friedrich Burdach . In: Thomas Bach, Olaf Breidbach (eds.): Naturphilosophie nach Schelling , Frommann Holzboog 2005, ISBN 3-7728-2255-X , pp. 73-106.
  • Michael Hagner : Karl Friedrich Burdach . In: German biographical encyclopedia . Vol. 2. Saur, Munich 1995. pp. 233-234
  • Carl von Voit :  Burdach, Karl Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, pp. 578-580.
  • Thomas Schmuck: Baltic Genesis. The foundation of modern embryology in the 19th century . Aachen 2009 (= Relationes Vol. 2) (on Burdach pp. 40–59, commented on Burdach bibliography pp. 248–256)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Karl Friedrich Burdach. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed August 7, 2015 (Russian).
  2. ↑ Burdach in: Physiology as empirical science , Vol. 1 (1826), p. 307
  3. ^ Alfred Meyer: Karl Friedrich Burdach and his Place in the History of Neuroanatomy , 1970, p. 560
  4. ↑ Thomas Junker : History of Biology. Beck, Munich 2004, p. 8.
  5. ^ Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurerlexikon , revised and expanded new edition of the edition from 1932, Munich 2003, 951 pages, ISBN 3-7766-2161-3
personal data
SURNAME Burdach, Karl Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German anatomist and physiologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1776
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 1847
Place of death Königsberg (Prussia)