Johannes von Muralt (medic)

Johannes von Muralt

Johannes von Muralt (also: Johann de Muralto ; born February 18, 1645 in Zurich ; † January 12, 1733 ibid) was a Swiss anatomist and surgeon .

family

Muralt was a scion of the noble family von Muralt , originally from Locarno , who , after converting to the Protestant faith, found a new home in Bern and Zurich in 1555 and soon belonged to the wealthy middle class. He was the son of the merchant Johann Melchior Muralt (1614–1688), who had married Regula Escher in 1672. Muralt's son Johann Conrad (1673–1732) was a city doctor in Zurich.

education and profession

Muralt first attended the Carolinum grammar school in Zurich and at the age of 20 published his first scientific paper on the intellectual life of the deaf and mute ( Schola mutorum ac surdorum ). During his academic trips he studied anatomy , surgery and obstetrics in Basel , Leiden , London , Oxford , Paris and Montpellier . His teachers included the well-known anatomist Caspar Bauhin (Basel) and the doctor Franciscus Sylvius (Leiden). Muralt completed his academic training in Basel with the dissertation De morbis parturientium et accidentibus, quae partum insequuntur and established his own practice in Zurich as a surgeon and obstetrician.

Muralt's surgical activities and public dissections of animals in Zurich soon led to disagreements with the local surgeons' guild Zum Schwarzen Garten . After five years his reputation as a doctor was so solid that Muralt was allowed to make sections on corpses (executed), accepted him under the name "Aretäus" in the Academia Caesario-Leopoldina Naturae Curiosorum and made an honorary member of the surgeon's guild.

Since 1686 Muralt has given anatomical lectures in German to surgeons, students and educated laypeople, preferably on the subjects of anatomy, physiology , organ pathology, medical and surgical therapy, the use of medicinal plants and instructions for military surgeons.

power

Muralt can be considered the founder of anatomical teaching in Zurich. In 1688 he was appointed city doctor ( archiater ) and was responsible for disease control , midwifery , pharmacies and the city hospital. Muralt operated all fracture, stone and cataract operations himself . In 1691 he received a physics professorship at the Chorherrnstift zum Große Münster and a professorship at the grammar school. The Leopoldina appointed him a member in 1681. Muralt's work made Zurich an important center for the study of anatomy and surgery.

Muralt's success was mainly due to his extraordinary practical surgical skills. 21 works dealt with anatomy, medicine and physiology, 13 works with mineralogy , zoology and botany , and 100 articles were devoted to the anatomy of animals.

His main natural history work is the Systema physicae experimentalis, integram naturam illustrans (1705–1714). A handwritten regional pharmacopoeia Muralt has been preserved. Muralt suspected that the contagious agent of the plague could be "animal" in nature.

His theoretical work is influenced in many ways by superstition and popular medicine, including belief in the devil or witchcraft . Some treatment methods were obviously based on magical practices that he successfully integrated into his therapy concept. From today's point of view, Muralt endeavored to pass on scientific knowledge through teaching and clear presentation.

Works

• Vademecum anatomicum sive clavis medicinae . Zurich 1677.
• Curationes medicae observationibus et experimentis anatomicis mixtae . Amsterdam 1688.
• Children's and midwifery books . Zurich 1689, Basel 1697.
• Surgical Writings . Basel 1691.
• Hippocrates helveticus or the Federal City, Country and House Doctor . Basel 1692.
• Systema physicae experimentalis , 4 volumes, Zurich 1705–1714.
• Writings from Wund-Artzney . Basel 1711.
• War and Soldier Diet . Zurich 1712.
• Safe guidance against the dissmal rampant Rothen damage . Zurich 1712.
• Kurtze and Grundlich description of the contagious plague . Zurich 1721.

literature

• August Hirsch :  Muralt, Johann von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1886, p. 53 f.
• Eberhard J. Wormer :  Muralt, Johann von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 602 f. ( Digitized version ).
• August Hirsch: Biographical lexicon of the outstanding doctors of all times and peoples . Volume 3. Berlin 1929-1935, pp. 302-303.
• Hans Jakob Finsler: Comments from the life of Johannes von Muralt . Zurich 1833.
• K. Meyer-Ahrens: The family of doctors from Muralt, especially Joh. V. Muralt, doctor in Zurich . In: Swiss Journal of Medicine . 1, 1862, pp. 268-289, 2, 1863, pp. 25-47.
• Otto Obschlager: The Zurich city doctor Johannes von Muralt and the medical superstition of his time . Dissertation. Zurich 1926.
• Dictionary of Scientific Biography . 9, 1974, pp. 581-582.