Josef Victor Rohon

Josef Victor Rohon

Josef Victor Rohon , also Rohony, Rohonyi (born May 7, 1845 in Temes-Buttyin , † March 15, 1923 in Prague ) was a Romanian (old Austrian) neuroanatomist and paleontologist .

life and work

The Evangelical Rohon family came from the northern part of Hungary. Josef Victor's grandfather Juraj (György) Rohonyi (1773–1831) was born in Horný Kalník and raised in the Protestant Lyceum Schemnitz . He followed a late Swabian migration with his family and settled in the Hungarian "Lower Land". Juraj Rohonyi was politically a forerunner of the Slovak Pan-Slavism influenced by the Evangelical Church and a passionate opponent of the Hungarians. Juraj Rohonyi had at least one son with his wife Eva Plachlinsky: Ferdinand (Nándor) Rohonyi, a Protestant teacher and preacher in Glozsán . Ferdinand Rohonyi married Rosa (Rózsa) Wodár on June 25, 1844 in Kleinschemlak in Romania. The apparently only son Josef Victor Rohon came from this marriage.

Rohon graduated from high school on January 30, 1865 in Ödenburg , Hungary. On October 14, 1867, he enrolled at the Protestant theological faculty of the University of Vienna, but left it again in January 1869 and began studying medicine in Vienna in the summer semester of 1871. Neuroanatomy and zoology soon formed the new focus of interest. During his studies, Rohon worked scientifically with Theodor Meynert , Carl Claus and Johann Kundrat ; around 1882 he also met Eduard Albert (1841–1900), head of the first surgical clinic at the University of Vienna.

For formal reasons, Rohon was unable to complete his medical studies at the University of Vienna and went to Munich in spring 1883, where he received his doctorate magna cum laude on August 1, 1884. As a victim of political intrigues, which apparently went out from Karl Langer von Edenberg (1819-1887), Rohon received no state employment after graduation. He stayed in Munich until 1888 and delved into palaeontological studies, mostly in collaboration with Karl Alfred von Zittel .

In the spring of 1888 Rohon went to St. Petersburg, where he worked as a private scholar until 1895 under tight financial circumstances; palaeontological publications and collective excursions fall into this phase of life.

In 1895 he was appointed associate professor for histology (later also for embryology) at the Karl Ferdinand University in Prague. This appointment followed a separate vote brought in by Karel Maydl (1853-1903), Albert's former assistant and since 1891 full professor at the Bohemian University in Prague, and Arnold Spina (1850-1918). He was appointed associate professor on August 5, 1895. On February 14, 1903, Rohon was finally appointed full professor of histology and embryology ad personam, and on September 30, 1915, at the age of seventy, he retired as a councilor.

At the age of 56 he married his wife Božena, with whom he had five children.

Of his 31 scientific publications, nine are devoted to neuroanatomy, 22 to paleontology (predominantly paleoichthyology). In the neuroanatomical work "Histiogenesis of the spinal cord of trout" from 1885, Rohon described for the first time in more detail special nerve cells in the spinal cord of fish and amphibians, which are known today as " Rohon-Beard cells ". In a palaeontological work from 1890 (About Sub-Silurian Fish), Rohon first described the remains of vertebrates from the Ordovician .

Publications (selection)

• The central organ of the Selachian nervous system. In: Memoranda of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna, mathematical and natural science class. 38, Vienna 1877, pp. 43-108 ,.
• About the origin of the vagus nerve in Selachians with consideration of the Lobi electrici from Torpedo. In: Works from the zoological institute of the University of Vienna and the zoological station in Trieste. 1 (3), Vienna 1878, pp. 1–22.
• Investigations into the structure of a microcephalic brain. In: Works from the zoological institute of the University of Vienna and the zoological station in Trieste. 2 (1), Vienna 1879, pp. 1–58.
• Studies on Amphioxus lanceolatus. A contribution to the comparative anatomy of the vertebrates. In: Memoranda of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna, math.-naturwiss. Class. 45, Vienna 1882, 2nd abbot, pp. 1–64.
• On the anatomy of the brain convolutions in primates. Munich 1884.
• Trout spinal cord histiogenesis. In: Meeting reports of the mathematical-physical class of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich. 14, 1885, Munich pp. 38-57.
• Structure and functions of the brain. Lecture given in the anthropological society in Munich. Heidelberg 1887.
• with KA Zittel: About conodonts. In: Meeting reports of the mathematical-physical class of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich. 16, Munich 1887, pp. 108-136.
• About fossil fish from the upper Yenisei. In: Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St.-Pétersbourg. 7. Ser., 36 (13), St. Petersburg 1889, pp. 1-17.
• The dendrodonts of the Devonian system in Russia. Paleontological and comparative anatomical study. In: Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St.-Pétersbourg. 7. Ser., 36 (14), St. Petersburg 1889, pp. 1-53.
• About sub-Silurian fish. In: Bulletin de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St.-Pétersbourg. NS, 1, St. Petersburg 1890, pp. 269–277.

literature

• M. Svojtka, J. Seidl, B. Steininger: From Batschka to the Wide World: Life and Work of Josef Victor Rohon (1845–1923) between Vienna, Munich, Saint Petersburg and Prague / A Bácskából a nagyvilágba: Josef Victor Rohon (1845–1923) élete és munkássága Bécsben, Münchenben, Szentpétervárott és Prágában. In: Austro-Hungarian relations in the field of higher education - Osztrák-magyar felsőoktatási kapcsolatok (K. Lengyel Zsolt, Nagy József Zsigmond & Ujváry Gábor red.), Székesfehérvár / Budapest 2010, ISBN 978-615-5075-01-8 , Pp. 195-222. ( Download, with Hungarian summary )
• M. Svojtka, J. Seidl, B. Steininger: From neuroanatomy, paleontology and Slavic patriotism: life and work of Josef Victor Rohon (1845–1923). In: Human - Science - Magic. (= Communications from the Austrian Society for the History of Science . 26) Vienna 2009, pp. 123–159.
• M. Svojtka: Seen with Trilobite Eyes: Paleontological Collectors in the Late 19th Century and Their Relationship with the University of Vienna. 6th Scientific History Symposium "History of Earth Sciences in Austria", Vienna 2006, pp. 69–72 (= reports of the Geological Federal Institute Vienna. 69). ( Download ; PDF file; 202 kB)
• L. Ivan: Univ. prof. Dr. Jozef Viktor Rohon, vynikajúci slovenský paleontológ (k. 60 výročiu úmrtia). Geologické práce, Správy, 79, 1983, pp. 25-26 and 274.
• M. Navrátil (Ed.): Almanach českých lékařů. Prague 1913, pp. 260-261.

Web links

• Rohon Beard cells