Hermann von Schrötter

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Hermann von Schrötter (back row on the right) in Tenerife in 1910

Hermann Viktor Anton Thomas von Schrötter , also Hermann Schrötter von Kristelli or Hermann Schrötter, (born August 5, 1870 in Vienna , † January 6, 1928 in Vienna ) was an Austrian physiologist and physician . He studied the physiological effects of changes in altitude, particularly barometric pressure sickness, and was a co-founder of aviation medicine .

Life

Coat of arms of the Schrötter von Kristelli family

Hermann von Schrötter was born in Vienna in 1870 as the son of the eminent laryngologist Leopold Schrötter von Kristelli . His grandfather was the chemist and mineralogist Anton Schrötter von Kristelli , known as the discoverer of red phosphorus , who had headed the Austrian main mint since 1868 . After attending grammar school in his hometown, Schrötter studied medicine and natural sciences at the University of Vienna and the University of Strasbourg . He received his doctorate in 1894. med. and in 1895 Dr. phil. He then worked at the kuk garrison hospital in Vienna until the end of 1895. In the following two years he was an operation child with Carl Gussenbauer at the Medical University Clinic Vienna and assistant at his father's internal clinic. From 1895 he also oversaw the compressed air construction site for the lock regulation work on the Danube near Nussdorf . In 1896 Schrötter undertook his first balloon flight to study altitude sickness , which was followed by more. In 1908 he represented Austria at the tuberculosis congress in Washington .

During the First World War he was a medical officer and from 1916 a medical officer. After the end of the war he was director of the malaria hospital in Wieselburg . After his discharge from military service, he headed the Alland pulmonary hospital , which his father had founded in 1898. After a year and a half he was appointed to the Public Health Office in the Federal Ministry for Social Administration . In Austria he introduced the iodination of table salt for goiter prophylaxis . In 1922 he took part as a delegate of Austria at the medical conference of the League of Nations . In 1925 Schrötter completed his habilitation in internal medicine at the University of Vienna. He retired with severe lung disease. In the same year Schrötter married the concert and oratorio singer Marguerite Alice Coroze (* 1887). In 1928 Hermann von Schrötter died of pulmonary tuberculosis .

Schrötter traveled a lot. In the winter of 1909 he accompanied Prince Georg Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Lüneburg on a hunting trip to the Upper Nile . In spring 1910 he took part in the Tenerife expedition led by Gotthold Pannwitz , alongside Nathan Zuntz , Arnold Durig and Joseph Barcroft . In 1911 he studied the climatic conditions in Dalmatia . During the Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913, von Schrötter worked on behalf of the Red Cross in Montenegro . During the First World War he was chief medical officer of a reserve hospital in Jerusalem . He was also deployed near Beersheba . In the early 1920s, he traveled to the Dead Sea to study balneology .

plant

Caisson disease

Hermann von Schrötter was active in numerous areas of medicine and physiology. Since 1895 his first interest was the investigation and control of caisson disease . While working in Nussdorf, he studied the numerous diseases that had occurred and looked for options for therapy and prophylaxis. His report on air pressure illnesses, published in 1900 with Richard Heller and Wilhelm Mager, also interns at the Leopold von Schrötters Clinic, is considered the fundamental German-language work of diving and hyperbaric medicine. Since 1999 the Society for Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine (GTÜM) has been awarding the Heller-Mager-von Schrötter Prize for the best original work in the field of diving and hyperbaric medicine.

Altitude Physiology and Aviation Medicine

The observed problems with decompression after dives led Schrötter to the question of whether similar symptoms would also occur during rapid ascent to great heights, for example during balloon flights. The risks of going up were known, at least since Gaston Tissandier's ride in the Zénith balloon to an altitude of 8,600 meters, which had cost his two companions their lives in 1875. In 1896 and 1897 Schrötter carried out the first balloon flights together with Mager in order to study the changes occurring in the human organism. The heights of around 3,500 meters were still too low for the purpose. During this time Schrötter made contact with the Berlin meteorologists Richard Aßmann , Arthur Berson and Reinhard Süring , who carried out numerous scientific balloon flights in the 1890s. In July 1901, Berson, Süring and Schrötter climbed to 7,450 meters with the Preussen balloon . Schrötter examined respiratory rate, blood pressure and pulse under the influence of the reduced oxygen supply. He carried out additional studies with the two meteorologists in the pneumatic cabinet of the Jewish Hospital in Berlin .

In 1902 Schrötter took part in the third meeting of the International Commission for Scientific Aviation in Berlin. He presented an oxygen mask for balloonists, which contained a control valve for the pressure and also preheated the gas. On the fringes of the conference, he undertook two balloon trips, in which, in addition to Berson and Süring, the physiologist Nathan Zuntz, who had dealt extensively with questions of altitude physiology on several expeditions to the Monte Rosa massif , took part. The trips served on the one hand to try out the breathing mask mentioned, on the other hand extensive experiments on gas metabolism and blood tests were carried out. These were the most extensive physiological studies in the balloon to date. On June 24, 1903, Berson and Schrötter climbed up to 8,800 m with the Prussian to test the use of pressure bottles with liquid oxygen. Schrötter was now the living balloonist who had reached the highest altitude after Berson and Süring.

Schrötter's draft of a pressurized cabin for balloon flights

As early as 1901, Süring and Schrötter had estimated the height at which, due to the low pressure, even breathing pure oxygen would no longer be sufficient to adequately supply the human body even in absolute rest. The result was 12,500 meters. With higher ascents the pressure would have to be artificially increased. At the 232nd meeting of the Berlin Aviation Association on November 16, 1903, Schrötter presented the design of a hermetically sealed basket with increased oxygen tension , i.e. a pressurized cabin for balloonists, as Auguste Piccard first used in 1931 on his stratospheric journey.

In 1906 Schrötter's work Oxygen in the prophylaxis and therapy of air pressure diseases was awarded the gold medal at the Milan World Exhibition . In 1912 his main work, Hygiene of Aeronautics and Aviation , a classic in aviation medicine , was published. In three extensive chapters, it deals with the physiology of balloon and airship travel as well as powered flight. In addition, accident medical aspects are discussed in detail and medical and technical prophylaxis are discussed.

Lung diseases

Schrötter was a pioneer of bronchoscopy . Together with Adolf Loewy , he used the endobronchial catheter in 1905, the first instrument to separate the airways in humans. He was the first to diagnose lung tumors in Vienna . Schrötter dealt intensively with pulmonary tuberculosis for many years.

Fonts

  • with R. Heller and W. Mager: Observations on physiological changes in the voice and hearing when the air pressure changes. 1897.
  • To the knowledge of the mountain sickness. 1899.
  • with R. Heller and W. Mager: Atmospheric pressure diseases. With special consideration of the so-called caisson disease. 1900.
  • About a rare cause of unilateral recurrence paralysis, at the same time a contribution to the symptomatology and diagnosis of the open ductus Botalli. 1901.
  • with N. Zuntz: Results of two balloon flights for physiological purposes. 1902.
  • with A. Loewy: Investigations into blood circulation in humans. 1905.
  • Bronchoscopy Clinic . 1906
  • Diary of a hunting trip to the Upper Nile. 1909.
  • Aeronautics and Aviation Hygiene. 1912.
  • Lectures on tuberculosis for doctors. 1913.
  • Sketches by a field doctor from Montenegro. 1913.
  • Climatic observations and studies on the occasion of the landing maneuvers in Dalmatia, August 1911, together with notes on the hygiene of the march . 1921
  • The dead Sea. Contribution to physical geography and balneology with remarks on the flora of the shore area. 1924.
  • To know the energy consumption when typing. 1925.
  • The spread of the so-called endemic goiter in school-age in the Austrian federal states. 1925.
  • To know the frequency of sexually transmitted diseases in Austria, assessed according to the incidence of recent infections. 1926.
  • with A. Loewy: About the energy consumption during musical activity. 1926.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Antje Spiekermann: Wilhelm Palizaeus und die Welfen ( Memento from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Gildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung from September 10, 2011 (PDF; 261 kB).
  2. ^ Wolfgang U. Eckart : Medicine and War. Germany 1914-1924 , Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag Paderborn 2014, to Dr. med. Dr. phil. Hermann von Schrötter and the situation of German doctors in Palestine p. 323 + 324. ISBN 978-3-506-75677-0 .
personal data
SURNAME Schrötter, Hermann von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schrötter, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian medic
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1928
Place of death Vienna