Johann Christian Anton Theden

Johann Christian Anton Theden

Johann Christian Anton Theden (born September 13, 1714 in Steinbeck , Mecklenburg , † October 21, 1797 in Berlin ) was a royal Prussian military doctor , surgeon , natural scientist and specialist author . He was also Frederick the Great's personal physician .

Life

Theden was born the youngest of 23 siblings. Despite his initially poor training with a barber , he managed to work his way up to the top of medical science and practice of his time. One of his teachers was the Schweidnitzer city ​​physicist Dr. phil. et med. Johann Siegmund Hahn (1696-1773), the co-founder of hydrotherapy in Germany, which is why Theden practiced the hydrotherapy.

Remembering his own beginnings, Theden complained in his textbook: “Our German surgeons are, leyder! mostly formed at the barber's pool. For three years they are apprenticeships with barbers and bathers. After this time they become journeyman and have learned nothing more than brushing their beards, painting the plaster and blood-letting, and the latter is often sufficiently craftsmanship, of which many sad examples testify. Many of them cannot even read, and if they can do this too, they often just as little know what to read as their teacher. " (Source: Lessons for the Unterwundärzte at Armies )

After the Seven Years' War ( 1756 - 1763 ), Theden was initially the 3rd General Surgeon in the Prussian Army and after the death of Johann Leberecht Schmucker (1712–1786) became the first General Surgeon at the Charité in Berlin (until his death in 1797 ). His successor was general surgeon Johann Goercke (1750-1822).

Theden rendered the highest service to surgery . His "wound or shot water" made from alcohol , honey or sugar, wine vinegar and dilute sulfuric acid for treating inflamed wounds - a further development of the method of his predecessor Schmucker - was then generally used as "Tinctura Antimonii Thedenii" . He led the elastic catheter , new methods in stopping bleeding and the use of hollow rails in the treatment of bone fractures a.

Memberships

• Member of the "Kaiserlich Leopoldinisch-Carolinische Deutsche Akademie der Naturwissenschaftler" (today: Leopoldina )
• Brother with the Freemasons : in 1765 he became a member of the Strict Observance . In the years 1765 - 1767 he was master of the chair of the Masonic lodge " To the three circles " in Stettin . In Berlin he was in the Lodge " Zur Eintracht " from 1771 - 1784 Master of the chair, as in the Mother Lodge " The Three Globes " from 1784 - 1794 , after he was "altschottischer foreman" and put because of his age in 1796 down from his position . There was a commemorative coin in his honor .

Works

• Lessons for under-wound physicians in the armies , digitized
• New remarks and experiences on the enrichment of the art of wound medicine , Volume 1 , Part 2

literature

• Hermann Frölich:  Theden, Johann Christian Anton . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 668.
• Johann Georg Meusel , Lexicon of the German writers who died between 1750 and 1800 , Volume 14, p.37 with a list of works

Web links

• Literature by and about Johann Christian Anton Theden in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature list in the online catalog of the Berlin State Library
• Tinctura Antimonii Thedenii (recipe and description of Thedens wound and shot water )