Theodor Hoffmann (medical officer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Transcript of Hoffmann's lecture on febrile diseases, translated into Japanese by Yamazaki Genshū
Transcript of Hoffmann's lecture on diagnostics

Theodor Hoffmann (born October 17, 1837 in Friedeberg , Neumark , † April 1, 1894 in Berlin ) was a German medical officer. With the military doctor Benjamin Karl Leopold Müller , he initiated the development of modern medicine in Japan after the Meiji Restoration .

background

After the fall of the Tokugawa in 1868, the new Japanese government vigorously modernized the country. As in many other scientific and technological areas, there were also violent disputes with regard to medicine as to which of the Western training systems to choose from should be taken as a model. At the end of this tug-of-war the government followed Sagara Chian's memorandum for Prussia in 1870 . She asked the Prussian Minister- Resident Max von Brandt for two German doctors for the still young medical school in Tokyo ( Tōkyō Igakkō 東京 医 学校 ), one of the two forerunners of today's Tokyo University . Brandt recommended the Prussian State Ministry to send military doctors because they were held in high regard in a society dominated by samurai and had the prospect of "being drawn into aristocratic circles and perhaps even becoming personal doctors to His Majesty the Tenno". In May 1870 the decision was made in favor of Leopold Müller and Theodor Hoffmann.

Life

Hoffmann was born in 1837 as the son of a landowner. He attended the state school in Friedberg, from 1852 the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium (Posen) . In 1858 he began to study medicine at the Silesian Friedrich Wilhelms University . In 1859 he became active in the Corps Borussia Breslau . As an inactive person , he moved to the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin two years later . She received her doctorate on July 1, 1862 as Dr. med. From August 1st of that year he served as a one-year volunteer in the Prussian Army . In June 1863 he was licensed and sworn in as a doctor. Shortly afterwards he received the qualification as a military assistant doctor. In the same year he became Ludwig Traube's assistant , but returned to Friedeberg after three years at the request of the family .

With the outbreak of the German War , he returned to the army. He was initially a battalion doctor in the Old Prussian Infantry Regiment No. 59 , but was transferred to the Prussian Navy at his own request in November . On August 16, 1868, he was promoted to assistant doctor general. Promoted to naval staff physician, he passed the examination to senior staff physician in 1869 and was appointed as a lecturer at the medical and surgical Friedrich Wilhelm Institute . There he met Müller.

Working in Japan

The call to Japan goes back to this time and Müller's suggestion. Müller later described the crossing to Japan in 1871 and the activities there in detail. Unfortunately, Hoffmann did not find time to look back in a similar way. Thanks to the commitment of these two doctors, the training of medical students was completely reorganized and placed on a scientific basis that was oriented towards Western standards.

Hoffmann was the second man in the shadow of the older and internationally experienced miller, but he made an equally significant contribution to the reform of medical education. While Müller concentrated on surgery , obstetrics and ophthalmology , Hoffmann mainly taught pathology , pharmacology and internal medicine . As with Müller, Hoffmann's remarks were translated sentence by sentence into Japanese and recorded by the students. A record of the anatomy lectures edited by Yamazaki Genshū was printed. Some volumes also contain Müller's lectures.

Müller performed rib resections and pus drainage for the first time in Japan. During the treatment of beriberi (Japanese: Kakke ), which did not occur in Germany, he quickly noticed that this ailment was related to the one-sided consumption of husked rice. By adding bread he achieved initial healing successes, the importance of which was only recognized later. In addition to the Mikado , Hoffmann's patients also included Saigō Takamori , one of the most influential personalities of those decades of upheaval.

Naturally, Müller was involved in the German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia, which was founded in Tokyo in 1873 . In their memos you can find some medical articles as well as a paper on the production of soy sauce , sake and mirin .

In August 1874, Müller and Hoffmann's three-year contract expired. Negotiations about an extension and the working conditions did not lead to an agreement. Until the arrival of their successors Wilhelm Schultze and Agathon Wernich in the spring of 1875, Müller and Hoffmann continued teaching. In the spring of 1875, both the Ministry of Education and the Meiji- Tennō gave festive farewell dinners. There were also generous gifts. They both left the country on November 25 and arrived in Berlin on April 6, 1876.

After returning

Hoffmann was reassigned to the army on April 27, 1876 as a staff and battalion doctor in the Kaiser Alexander Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 1 . On June 22, 1882 he came to Rastatt fortress as a senior staff doctor, 2nd class, and garrison doctor . Three years later, on December 17, 1885, he resigned from the service. He then practiced as a general practitioner in Rastatt and Davos . He was an honorary member of his corps and died at the age of 56.

His son Bernhard Hoffmann became district administrator and member of parliament.

Works

  • Medicine in Japan and Japanese doctors . Communications of the German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia, Vol. 1 (1873–1876), Issue 1, pp. 23–25; (Continued) Issue 4, pp. 9–20.
  • The Japanese kak-ke . Communications of the German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia, Vol. 1 (1873–1876), Issue 2, pp. 16–21.
  • About the artificial excitation of the abortion in Japan . Announcements of the German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia, Vol. 1 (1873–1876), Issue 4, pp. 28–29.
  • Large doses of chinin for chronic pneumonia and pulmonary bleeding . Announcements of the German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia, Vol. 1 (1873–1876), Issue 4, p. 48.
  • About the preparation of Shoju, Sake and Myrin . Announcements of the German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia, Vol. 1 (1873–1876), Issue 6, pp. 9–11.
  • Müller / Hoffmann: Ika zensho. Kaibo hen. Tōkyō: Shimamura Risuke, 1875–1882 (lecture transcript, translated by Yamazaki Genshū) ( 忽 布 満 ・ 繆爾 列 兒 口授 、 山崎 元 脩 筆記 筆記 『医科 全書 解剖 篇』 島村 利 助 、 明治 ８ ー １５ 年 ), digitized version, Tokyo university

See also

literature

  • Leopold Müller: Tokyo-Igaku. Sketches and memories from the time of intellectual change in Japan 1871–1876 . Deutsche Rundschau, 1888, p. 312 ff .; 441 ff.
  • Heinz Vianden: German doctors in Japan during the Meiji period , in: Josef Kreiner (ed.) Germany - Japan historical contacts . Bonn: Bouvier, 1984, pp. 165-168.
  • Ernst Kraas: Surgery: Germans in Japan - Japanese in Germany , in: E. Kraas, Y. Hiki (Hg): 300 years of German-Japanese relationships in medicine . Springer, Berlin 1992, pp. 65-70.
  • Takuma Takehide: Theodor Eduard Hoffmann (1837-1894) , in: Japanese-German Center Berlin (ed.): Bridge Builders - Pioneers of Japanese-German cultural exchange . Iudicium Verlag, Munich 2005, pp. 359-369 (Japanese-German).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yamazaki became director of the Niigata Medical School in 1880
  2. ↑ Müller, 1888, p. 316.
  3. ↑ a b Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 78/465.
  4. ↑ Dissertation: De bronchitide putrida .
  5. ↑ Vianden, p. 165
  6. ↑ Official Gazette of the Royal Government of Potsdam and the City of Berlin, Item 24, June 12, 1863: “The Doctors of Medicine and Surgery Reinhold Long, Hermann User, Carl August Leopold Kolbe, Gustav Albert Weese, Theodor Eduard Hoffmann and Abraham Pincus in Berlin have been licensed and sworn in as general practitioners, surgeons and obstetricians in the royal lands ”.
  7. ↑ Vianden, p. 165 f.
  8. ^ Leopold Müller: Tokyo-Igaku. Sketches and memories from the time of intellectual change in Japan 1871–1876.
  9. ↑ Vianden, p. 166.
personal data
SURNAME Hoffmann, Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoffmann, Theodor Eduard (full name); 忽 布 満 (Japanese transliteration)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German medical officer in Japan
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH Friedeberg , Neumark
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1894
Place of death Berlin