Ludwig Franz Amelung

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Ludwig Franz Amelung (born May 28, 1798 in Bickenbach , † April 19, 1849 in Riedstadt ) was a German doctor, psychiatrist and specialist author.

Ludwig Franz Amelung (1798–1849)

Life

The father, Carl Christian Gottlieb Amelung (1769–1823), Grand Ducal Hessian General Staff Medic at the military hospital in Bickenbach, came from a pastor's family; the mother was a sister of Christian Wilhelm Hufeland . Ludwig Franz came to the capital Darmstadt to be educated at the age of two , where he attended grammar school after elementary school. In autumn 1816 he enrolled at the University of Jena and studied anatomy, physiology, pathology and auxiliary medical sciences with Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner , Johann Friedrich Fuchs , Lorenz Oken , Karl Wilhelm Stark and Wilhelm Karl Friedrich Suckow during his 1½ years . He then moved to Berlin and continued his studies with his uncle Christian Wilhelm Hufeland and / or his brother Friedrich Hufeland as well as with Karl Asmund Rudolphi , Gustav Behrend , Albrecht von Graefe , Eduard Caspar von Siebold , Johann Nepomuk Rust and Emil Osann . At the end of 1819 he received his doctorate and also passed the Prussian state exams. In 1820 he and his friend Philipp Joseph Horsch embarked on a scientific journey that took them to Paris, through Switzerland and northern Italy to Bologna and Venice. After a 4-week stay in Vicenza due to illness, they returned to Darmstadt via Vienna, Salzburg and Prague. The main purpose of the trip was to visit medical facilities, especially ophthalmology and obstetrics clinics, and to study their facilities as part of practical training. In Darmstadt, Amelung took another exam in front of the medical college and then began his practical work.

On October 1, 1821, Amelung took up a position as medical director of the Hesse-Darmstadt state hospital for the elderly, incurable and mentally ill in Hofheim near Darmstadt (from 1904 Hessian state sanatorium and nursing home Philippsburg near Goddelau , Groß Gerau district ) with the rank of medical councilor , which housed around 250 mentally ill patients and another 50 patients when he entered. Here he expanded his knowledge, especially in the field of mental illnesses, and systematically improved the hospital's facilities. He vehemently demanded respect for the human dignity of the mentally ill and advocated the abolition of the previously extensive use of coercive measures - including beating with rods, sticks and whips, turning on the swivel chair until unconscious, shackling with chains and foot blocks, shock cures, Burning in with glowing irons and much more - in patient treatment. In his psychiatric practice and his scientific works, Amelung represented the somatic school in contrast to the earlier philosophical direction: starting from the standpoint of the unity of body and soul, he sought to remedy psychological ailments by researching physiological and pathological phenomena and by treating organic disorders because in his opinion the "abnormalities of the mental functions" are caused by a "change in the organic" of the body and the soul and the body, which is "animated", are related. He also researched the effects of natural herbal remedies on mental disorders. After a visit to the model institute in Siegburg in 1827, Amelung turned to the Hessian government with reform proposals and plans for a new building, but only received funds for renovations. On April 16, 1849, a murderer who was admitted to the hospital injured him with a stab in the abdomen, of which he died three days later in the Hofheim hospital. He left his wife with seven, mostly unserved children.

The Philosophical-Medical Society of Würzburg appointed Amelung to its member on August 25, 1827.

Fonts (selection)

Amelung has written numerous papers and articles in medical journals, including:

  • Historical confirmation of the rage vesicles (Lysses), along with analogous references to the importance of the salivary glands in this disease , in: Hufeland's Journal for practical medicine. Vol. 59, December 1924, pp. 88-98. - Observations and remarks on several diseases of women (menstrual disorders; hemorrhoides uteri et vaginae; puerperal fever; galactorrhoea) . Ibid., Vol. 66, April 1828, pp. 58-101; May 1828, pp. 68-77. - On the use of the thorn apple (Datura Stramonium) in distress of the mind and various other diseases . Ibid., Vol. 67, November 1828, pp. 74-106. - Some remarks on the rubbing of the tartar ointment on the head in mental illnesses, in comparison with the use of hot iron . Ibid., Vol. 69, September 1829, pp. 86-92.
  • Brief message from the Hofheim hospice and madhouse in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, along with attached medical histories , in: Friedrich Nasse (Ed.): Nasse's Zeitschrift für Anthropologie. Carl Cnobloch, Leipzig 1824, 4th issue, p. 321, online on the pages of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek - About the detailed material conditions of mental illnesses. Remarks prompted by Bayle's new teaching on these diseases . Ebda, Issue 1, 1826, pp. 150–196, online on the pages of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek - On the influence of the atmosphere on the human body and its effect on mind and spirit . Ibid., No. 2, 1826, pp. 201–228, online on the pages of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
  • Vagitus uterinus , in: Adolph Henke (Hrsg.): Journal for State Medicines . Vol. 10, Palm & Enke, Erlangen 1825. - Considerations about the limits of sanity. With comments by A. Henke . Ibid., Vol. 13, 1827, Issue 1, pp. 47-120. - Comments on the establishment of insane asylums and the treatment of the insane . Ibid., 1839, 3rd quarterly issue, pp. 38–92.
  • Some observations on the external use of the sublimate in ulcers and chronic rash diseases , in: Gräfes and von Walther's Journal for surgery and ophthalmology. Volume IX, Issue 2-5.
  • About the human soul and its connection with the body. A psychological attempt , in: JB Friedreich (Hrsg.): Magazine for the philosophical, medical and judicial psychology. Wuerzburg 1829.
  • Report on the cases of illness that occurred in the Landeshospital and Madhouse Hofheim near Darmstadt in 1833 and 1834 , in: Schmidt's yearbooks of domestic and foreign entire medicine. Born in 1836. Volume 2. Leipzig, pp. 85-101.
  • Expert opinion on the responsibility of Jacob Loos von Erbesbüdesheim , who was accused of murdering his wife , in: Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie und psychisch gerichtliche Medicin, published by Germany's insane doctors in conjunction with forensic doctors and criminalists under the editorship of Damerow, Fleming and Roller, 6th vol. , August Hirschwald, Berlin 1849, pp. 79-99.

published in book form:

  • Disquisitiones quaedam de contagiorum natura. Medical inauguration dissertation at the University of Berlin. Printed by Conrad Feister, Berlin 1819.
  • General rules for the treatment of the insane and for the prevention of mental disruption. Initially intended for non-doctors. Wilhelm Ludwig Wesché, Frankfurt a. M. 1827.
  • (with Friedrich Bird): Contributions to the theory of mental illnesses. Carl Wilhelm Leske, Darmstadt 1832/1836.

Editor:

  • Medical examination of the criminal trials of Léger, Feldtmann, Lécouffe, Jean-Pierre, and Papavoine, in which a mental disruption was suggested as a means of defense; In addition to considerations on moral freedom in judicial and medical terms, by Dr. [Etienne J.] Georget. Translated from French by Dr. F. Amelung at the madhouse at Hofheim near Darmstadt. CW Leske, Darmstadt 1827.
  • Francis Willis: About Broken Minds. From the English. Carl Wilhelm Leske, Darmstadt 1828.
  • (With G. Schatzmann): About cleanliness, its influence on health and its effects on maintaining physical beauty, on well-being and on the length of life. From the French. Carl Wilhelm Leske, Darmstadt 1828.
  • Surgical clinic, a collection of experiences in the campaigns and military hospitals from 1792 to 1829. By Baron DJ Larrey, (…). In an excerpt from the French with some comments, edited by Dr. F. Amelung, hospice doctor in Hofheim (...). 2 volumes. With 15 illustrations each. Carl Wilhelm Leske, Leipzig and Darmstadt 1831.
  • On the concept, essence and pathogeny of mental illnesses, edited. by Franz Amelung and Friedrich Bird. Volume 1. Darmstadt 1832.
  • Outline of the special pathology with special consideration of the pathological anatomy by Herbert Majo (...) London. Translated from English and edited with some additions and comments by Dr. F. Amelung, Grand Ducal Hessian Medicinal Council, doctor in charge at the State Hospital and Madhouse Hofheim near Darmstadt and corresponding member of several learned societies. 1st and 2nd divisions. Carl Wilhelm Leske, Darmstadt 1838 and 1839.

Literature (selection)

  • Adolph Carl Peter Callisen: Medicinisches Writer-Lexicon of the now living physicians, surgeons, obstetricians, pharmacists, and naturalists of all educated peoples. First volume, A-Ba. Copenhagen 1830, pp. 133-135 (Friedrich Bird).
  • Heinrich Eduard Scriba: Amelung, Ludwig Franz , in: Biographisch-literarisches Lexikon der Writers of the Grand Duchy of Hesse in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. 1st Abth. Leske, Darmstadt 1831., pp. 4-6.
  • Friedrich Bird: Dr. Franz Amelung , in: Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie und psychisch gerichtliche Medicin, published by Germany's insane doctors in connection with forensic doctors and criminalists under the editorship of Damerow, Fleming and Roller, 6th volume, August Hirschwald, Berlin 1849, pp. 440–444 . Addendum: Vol. 7, 1850, pp. 623-628.
  • Friedrich Bird, in: New Nekrolog der Deutschen, Volume 27, I, 1849, pp. 300–304.
  • Rudolph Mayer: The Grand Ducal State Hospital Hofheim 1533 - 1904 written to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founder's birthday on November 13, 1904. Self-published, Mainz 1904.
  • Hans Laehr: The institutions for the mentally ill (...), 6th edition, Georg Reimer, Berlin 1907, p. 69.
  • [Hermann] Schneider ([Senior Physician at] Philippshospital Goddelau): Ludwig Franz Amelung. 1798-1849 , in: Kirchhoff: German insane doctors. Individual images of their life and work. Vol. I, Springer, Berlin 1921, pp. 176–178, with illus. Portrait of Franz Amelung, p. 177.
  • F [riedrich] Falk, in: August Hirsch (ed.): Biographical lexicon of outstanding doctors of all times and peoples. 2nd Edition. Vol. 1. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin and Vienna 1929, pp. 112-113.
  • Alma Kreuter: German-speaking neurologists and psychiatrists. A biographical-bibliographical lexicon from the forerunners to the middle of the 20th century (...). Volume 1: Abelsdorff to Gutzmann. KG Saur, Munich et al. 1996, pp. 34-36.
  • Salina Braun: healing and defect. Psychiatric practice in the Hofheim and Siegburg institutions from 1830 to 1878. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009.
  • Marion Schmaus: Psychosomatics. Literary, philosophical and medical stories on the development of a discourse (1778–1936). Max Niemeyer, Tübingen 2009.
  • Peter Smith: Experiencing the change in psychiatry , in: Ärzte Zeitung online, January 11, 2019 ( https://www.aerztezeitung.de/panorama/article/979313/zeitsprung-wandel-psychiatrie-erleben.html )

Web links (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ named differently in different sources
  2. ↑ Laehr, p. 69
  3. ^ History of Psychiatry
  4. ↑ Michael Kutzer: The pathological-anatomical findings and their evaluation in German psychiatry in the first half of the 19th century, in: Medizinhistorisches Journal. 26, No. 3/4, 1991, pp. 214-235
  5. ↑ Braun, p. 129
  6. ^ Helm Stierlin : The violent patient. An investigation into the attacks against doctors and caregivers. Inaugural dissertation at the Medical Faculty of the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich 1955. Karger, Basel 1956
  7. ^ Bird, Nekrolog 1849, p. 440
personal data
SURNAME Amelung, Ludwig Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Amelung, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and specialist author
DATE OF BIRTH May 28, 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH Bickenbach
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 1849
Place of death Riedstadt