Rudolph Karl Friedrich Opitz

Rudolph Karl Friedrich Opitz (born February 12, 1735 in Minden ; † March 1, 1800 in Minden) was a Prussian doctor .

Life

As the son of the teacher, professor and later rector of the Minden grammar school, Johann Karl Opitz, Rudolph Karl Friedrich Opitz received a "learned education" which, according to Peter Florens Weddigen, included philology, natural history, botany and "medical science". From 1753 Opitz studied at the University of Halle and received his doctorate on March 19, 1756 with the writing De usu venaesectionis in casibus quibusdam dubiis . In the same year Opitz served in the Hanoverian field hospital and in 1774 was allowed to join the Minden War and Domain Chamber as "City and Country Physician" .

Opitz had specialized in childbirth and some epidemic diseases. In the 1770s, according to his biography, he made his first attempts at “the leaf = inoculation”. By the end of the 18th century, in his role as “land physician”, he had leaf inoculation enforced in the entire Prussian province of Minden-Ravensberg. In 1775 he became a member of the Society of Friends of Natural Science in Berlin .

family

Opitz was married twice. His first wife, Charlotte Amalie Franziske Opitz (nee Meier), daughter of a war and domain councilor, died in 1774 just one year after the marriage. In the same year Opitz took her sister, Friederike Sophie Justine Meier, as his wife.

Selection of works

• History of his inauguration of children's books, which he began in his fatherland and introduced with great success.
• History of an epidemic of bilious fever in Minden in 1771 and 1772.
• Gardanne discovered Sutton's secret, translated from French. Berlin 1775.
• From the lazy and plague sickness of cattle, translated from French. Berlin 1776.

literature

• Peter Florens Weddigen: Westphalian historically geographical national = calendar for use and pleasure to the year 1804. Paderborn 1804, pp. 147–155. Digitized from the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster.