Karl Gottfried Erdmann

Karl Gottfried Erdmann (born March 31, 1774 in Wittenberg ; † January 13, 1835 in Dresden ) was a German physician and botanist.

Life

The son of the theologian and church historian Johann Christoph Erdmann received his first training from his father and later attended high school in Wittenberg. In 1790 he began studying at the University of Wittenberg , where he attended lectures by Johann Matthias Schröckh , Johann Daniel Titius , Christian August Langguth , Georg Rudolf Böhmer and others. After Erdmann had passed the candidate examination in 1796, he went to Dresden, where he worked with Weiss, Johann August Wilhelm Hedenus and Röler in anatomy, obstetrics and surgery. He received practical training under Leonardi. In 1798 he returned to Wittenberg, where he received his doctorate in medicine with the dissertation de nexu theoriam et praxin medicam intercedente .

In the same year he went to Dresden again, in 1799 became an official and rural physician and at the same time assessor of the medical college, which was repealed in 1824. He received honorary membership of the Leipzig Economic Society in 1801, in the following year he became a doctor for the poor, and in 1821 a mountain doctor for the royal coal workers in Plauen . He was awarded the gold medal of merit for his services to vaccination . In 1825 he suffered a heart attack that paralyzed the right side of his body. Nevertheless, he continued to take care of his patients and died in the course of his professional activity as a result of another heart attack.

Erdmann had made extraordinary contributions in 1801 when he vaccinated 6,000 children in Dresden with the smallpox vaccination and thus introduced that vaccination in Saxony. Erdmann also proved his competence in various epidemics and had done a lot for the maintenance of the medical service in Dresden during the civil war of 1812–1814. In addition, he wrote many articles in various journals of his time and dealt primarily with medical and botanical topics.

His marriage to Wilhelmine Friedericke Geringemuth in 1800 resulted in several children, only two of whom survived their father. The son, the chemist Otto Linné Erdmann , also gained importance.

Works

• Diss. Inaug. De nexu theoriam et praxin medicam intercedente; q. des. D. 20. Novbr. Wittenberg 1798.
• Strange plants of the Upper Saxon flora, along with remarks about their use in economics, technology and pharmacy. Dresden 1800, 1801.
• Essays and observations from all parts of medicinal science and partly also from natural history. Dresden 1802.
• Tabular overview of theoretical and practical botany in its entirety. Dresden 1802.
• Diss. De metastatibus. Wittenberg 1810.

literature

• Friedrich August Schmidt, Bernhardt Friedrich Voigt: New Nekrolog der Deutschen. Vol. 13, part 1, p. 63 ( online )
• Adolph Carl Peter Callisen: Medicinisches Writer Lexicon of the now living physicians, surgeons, obstetricians, pharmacists, and naturalists of all educated nations. Vol. 6, Copenhagen, 1831.
• Georg Christoph Hamberger / Johann Georg Meusel : The learned Teutschland or lexicon of the now living German writers. Verlag Meyerische Buchhandlung, Lemgo, 1801, Vol. 9, p. 299 ( online ); 1805, Vol. 11, p. 201, ( online ); 1808, Vol. 13, p. 336, ( online ); 1820, vol. 18, p. 518, ( online ); 1831, vol. 22, part 2, p. 69, ( online ).
• Heinrich August Pierer : Universal encyclopedia of the present and the past. Volume 5. Altenburg 1858, p. 835 ( online )