Max Herz (doctor)

Max Herz (born April 3, 1865 in Neutitschein , Moravia , † November 1956 in San Francisco ) was an Austrian internist .

The department heads of the General Polyclinic in Vienna around 1885.
From left, seated:
Alois Monti , Johann Schnitzler , Robert Ultzmann , Jakob Hock , Samuel Siegfried Karl von Basch ;
Standing from left:
August Leopold von Reuss , EDmil Stoffella , Wilhelm Winternitz , Leopold Oser , Anton von Frisch , Hans von Hebra , Ludwig Fürth , Moriz Benedikt , Viktor Urbantschitsch , Max Herz , Anton Wölfler , Ludwig Bandl

education and profession

After completing high school in Kroměříž he studied in Vienna Medicine (1884-1890) and in 1890 his doctorate in general medicine. From 1890 to 1893 he worked as an aspirant and secondary doctor at the Vienna General Hospital with Wilhelm Winternitz . In 1892, together with Hermann Schlesinger (1866–1934), Herz founded the Vienna Medical Club , from which the Society for Internal Medicine emerged, and completed his habilitation in 1895 as a private lecturer in internal medicine , in the same year he settled in Vienna as an internist.

Herz spent some time in Berlin and Meran , where he was particularly concerned with the treatment of heart diseases . In 1899, together with Anton Bum, he founded a model institute in Vienna, which was based on the principles of "mechanical therapeutic gymnastics". In 1909, Herz founded the Central Journal for Heart Diseases and Vascular Diseases .

After the German invasion, his license to teach expired in 1934. In March 1939, he first had to flee to London and in 1945 he emigrated to San Francisco , where he acquired American citizenship.

power

As a general practitioner and scientist, Max Herz was equally versatile, more than 200 scientific articles and several books on different subject areas prove this.

He first described the trajectories of the moving eye and, among other things, dealt with the physiological and therapeutic effects of steam heat (1891), formulated a new theory of fever (1893) and tried to base the pathology of mental illnesses on Kant's philosophy . Other focal points of his work were investigations into the capillary pulse and the device-based indirect blood pressure measurement (1908).

Onychometer for recording capillary pulse curves

In 1896, Herz gave a method that offered the possibility of recording the capillary pulse (onychography). Essentially, it was a modified sphygmograph that allowed the pulse to be recorded on the fingernail . A small pad transferred the astonishingly clear capillary pulsations to a pulse recorder. With this method, Herz hoped to gain knowledge about the "width and flexibility of the smallest vessels of the fingertip" and thus examined above all the pulse behavior in fever and jaundice .

He developed a new method of thermo palpation , introduced the principles and apparatus of resistance therapy (1898). Therapeutic forms of treatment ("mechanical therapeutic gymnastics", thermal stimuli, hydrotherapy , light and air flow baths, etc.) were of particular interest . From 1907 onwards, Herz mainly turned to work on the diagnosis and therapy of heart and vascular diseases (especially prophylaxis and therapy of arteriosclerosis ).

In 1916, Herz also presented a printable sound script for the blind .

Herz was a supporter of the Freemasons and published about this worldview . In addition to activities in the field of medical profession, Herz was also President of the Society for Physical Medicine.

Works

• The globe ducts and the eye muscles . 1891
• Critical Psychiatry . 1895
• Onychography . Wien Med Presse 37 (1896) 409
• The pulse of the smallest vessels . Vienna Klin 22 (1896) 165
• Textbook of therapeutic gymnastics . Berlin 1903
• A new simple blood pressure monitor . Münchner Med Wochenschr 55 (1908) 2538
• A book for those with heart disease . 1911
• The Freemasons . 1924

literature

• Max Haseneder: Personal bibliographies of professors and lecturers in internal medicine at the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna in the approximate period from 1890–1940. Dissertation, Med., Erlangen-Nürnberg 1971, p. 23
• Nathan Koren: Jewish Physicians. A Biographical Index. Jerusalem 1973, p. 192
• Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography. Czernauti 1925, vol. 3, p. 79

Individual evidence

1. ^ Peter Voswinckel, Fischer III, (2002), p.630