Owsei Temkin

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From left after right Stephen d'Irsay , Arnold C. Klebs , Henry E. Sigerist , Karl Sudhoff , Friedrich Wilhelm Tobias Hunger , Owsei Temkin . Leipzig 1929
Left to right: William Henry Welch , Fielding Hudson Garrison , J. Rathbone Oliver , Owsei Temkin , Henry E. Sigerist . Baltimore 1933

Owsei Temkin (also: Ovsej Temkin ; born October 6, 1902 in Minsk ; † July 18, 2002 in Baltimore , Maryland , USA ) was a German-American doctor and medical historian of Russian descent.

Life

After the Jewish pogroms in 1904, the family fled Minsk to Leipzig , where Ovsei Temkin grew up. After the October Revolution of 1917, he lost his Russian citizenship and became stateless. In 1922 he enrolled at the Leipzig Medical Faculty and at the same time attended philosophical lectures, from 1925 also lectures and seminars at the Leipzig Medical History Institute with Henry E. Sigerist . Here he wrote a dissertation in 1927 with the title The systematic connection in the Corpus Hippocraticum . After he had passed the medical state examination in 1927, he applied in vain for a position in the clinic. As a volunteer assistant he joined the Medical History Institute, in which, in addition to Sigerist, the emeritus Karl Sudhoff was still active. In addition, Johann Daniel Achelis , Ernst Hirschfeld, Walter Pagel , Stephen d'Irsay and Erwin H. Ackerknecht were associated with the institute. In 1928 Temkin received the first assistant position there and in the same year also received German citizenship. In 1931 he wrote his habilitation thesis with the title History of Hippocratism in Late Antiquity . When Sigerist began a research stay in the USA in 1930/31, he appointed Temkin as interim director of the institute.

After Sigerist was appointed to the Johns Hopkins Chair in Baltimore in 1932 , he initiated Temkin's reunion. Together with his wife, the English Germanist C. Lilian Shelly, Temkin followed Sigerist to the USA. To Marcel H. Bickel : "Both the Nazi enemy Sigerist and the Jew Temkin would have had in Germany a year later, no future." Soon Temkin were withdrawn by the German Nazis the title of lecturer and German citizenship. Erwin H. Ackerknecht and Walter Pagel also emigrated from his Leipzig colleagues. In 1935 Temkin was made an associate professor in Baltimore, and in 1938 he obtained American citizenship.

After Sigerist returned to Europe in 1947, Temkin temporarily administered the Johns Hopkins Chair for two years. Richard Harrison Shryock chaired the institute from 1949 until his retirement in 1958 , followed by Temkin from 1958 to 1968.

The focus of Temkin's work was, among other things, research on the history of Byzantine medicine , epilepsy and gynecology . He published fetal position manuscripts with signatures of cash and Rinus Vossanius. Owsei Temkin passed away shortly before his 100th birthday. The commemorative publication for the multi-day anniversary celebrations, which were planned with his two daughters, among other things, had already been printed by the University of Baltimore.

Awards

Fonts (selection)

  • On the story of 'Morals and Syphilis'. Archive for the History of Medicine Vol. 19, H. 4 (October 1, 1927): 331–348.
  • History of Hippocratism in Late Antiquity. In: Kyklos 4, 1932, pp. 1-19.
  • The doctrine of epilepsy in the Hippocratic writings. In: Bulletin of the History of Medicine 1, 1933, pp. 277-322.
  • Galen's “Advice for an epileptic boy”. 1934 (digitized version)
  • The Falling Sickness. A History of Epilepsy from the Greeks to the Beginning of Modern Neurology . Johns Hopkins, Baltimore 1945; 2nd ed. Baltimore and London 1971; 1994 (2nd continuous edition): ISBN 0-8018-4849-0 .
  • Byzantine Medicine: Tradition and Empiricism , Dumbarton Oaks Papers 16 (1962), pp. 97-115 ( downloadable from JSTOR ).
  • together with C. Lilian Temkin: Ancient Medicine: Selected Papers of Ludwig Edelstein , 1967.
  • jointly with Bentley Glass and William L. Straus Jr .: Forerunners of Darwin, 1745-1859 (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1968) ISBN 0-8018-0222-9 .
  • The double face of Janus and other essays in the history of medicine . Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1977 ISBN 0-8018-1859-1
  • Soranus' Gynecology . Baltimore and London 1956 (digitized)
  • Hippocrates in a world of pagans and Christians . 1991 (digitized version)
  • On Second Thought , in: “On Second Thought” and Other Essays in the History of Medicine , Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002 (digitized)

literature

  • Marcel H. Bickel . Owsei Temkin (1902-2002): a 20th century medical historian . In: Gesnerus. Swiss Journal of the History of Medicine and Sciences. 59 (3-4) (2002), pp. 224–241 (digitized version )
  • Marcel H. Bickel. Correspondence Henry E. Sigerist - Owsei Temkin 1931 - 1956. Bern 2012 (pdf)
  • Gerald Wiemers: Great Medical Historian, On the Death of Owsei Temkin . In: Journal der Universität Leipzig , issue 7 / December 2002, page 33 ISSN  0947-1049 pdf
  • Vivian Nutton . Owsei Temkin (1902-2002). In: Medical History 47 (1) 2003, pp. 100–103, PMC 1044768 (free full text)
  • Peter Schneck: Temkin, Owsei. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1381.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b G. Wiemers: Great medical historian, To the death of Owsei Temkin. P. 33.
  2. ↑ Marcel H. Bickel. Owsei Temkin (1902-2002): A Medical Historian of the 20th Century pp. 224–225
  3. ↑ Marcel H. Bickel. Owsei Temkin (1902-2002): a 20th century medical historian . In: Gesnerus. Swiss Journal of the History of Medicine and Sciences. 59 (3-4) (2002), p. 226
  4. ^ Member History: Owsei Temkin. American Philosophical Society, accessed January 29, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Review by Erwin H. Ackerknecht in Gesnerus. Swiss Journal of the History of Medicine and Sciences. 34 (1977), pp. 421-424 (digitized version )
personal data
SURNAME Temkin, Owsei
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Temkin, Ovsej
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American doctor and medical historian
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Minsk
DATE OF DEATH July 18, 2002
Place of death Baltimore , Maryland , USA