Friday, SepferAer 7, 1945

THE JEWISH

Jewish Contributions to. Medicine

Began to Distinguish Selves
During the Middle Ages

ome Served .4s Private Physicians fo Kings and Popes,
Others Contributed Outstanding Discoveries;
Maimonides Immortalized in History

By EDWARD PODOLSKY, M. D.

Jews began to distinguish them-
elves in medicine with unusual
rominence during the Middle
Ages and shortly thereafter.
mong the earliest of the great
ewish physicians was Isaac
sraeli, who attained an enviable
eputation as an eye specialist in
is day. His • eminence in this
cience was so great that he was
ade the private physician of
atimate, Calif of Kairwan. Be-
ide his interest in diseases of
he eye; Dr. Israeli did some origi-
al work on the origin of fevers.
The most noteworthy Jewish
hysician of the Middle Ages was
oses Maimonides, whose name
immortalized in Hebrew liter,
ture, was the author of 'the
'uide to The Perplexed. He was
lso well known as a philosopher,
et, author and religious leader.
Another Great Name
Bonet de Latis was another
eat name in early Jewish medi-
ne. When the Jews were ex-
elled from Provence in the last
art of the 15th century, he was
ailed to Rome as the personal
hysician of Pope Leo X. His skill-
s a physician must have been
traordinary, for at a time when
e Jews were subjected to the
uelest persecution for a Jew to
ecorne the personal physician of
e Pope was a very notable
chievement.
Another Jew who became per-
nal physician to a Pope was
cob Mantine who was in , at-
ndance to Paul III. He was so
ersatile a man that he attained
stinction as a diplomat as well.
During the 15th century and
ereafter - Jewish medical men
prominence became numerous.
ey were found as private phy-
cians to almost every king in
urope, and because of these
asitions were able to speak a
od word for their people when
e occasion demanded. Marie de
edici was attended by Elias
ontalte and she thought so
uch of him that she had his
dy embalmed at his death as
desired and sent it to Holland
e burial.
International Reputation
The first Jewish physician to
permitted to fill the position
privat-docent in Prussia was
obert Remak. There is nothing
rprising in this, for Remak was
eady a physician of interna-
onal reputation at that time,
ving won great honors in neu-
logy and electrology. He also
ade great contributions to em-
yology, the science of life in
e making.
Another great German-Jewish
ysician was Ludwig Traube,
o has earned the name of
ther of Experimental Path-
ogy. He' made great contribu-
ris to the studies of clinical
ermometry and to the treat-
nt of heart disease with digi-

talis. Karl Weigart was another
Jew who attained great prom-
inence in medicine. He was, also
a pathologist and a member of
the Leopsic University faculty.
Today his name is immortalized
in the famous Weigart stains
which have made possible many
discoveries in the cell structure
of the nervous system.
Two brothers, Richard Lie-
breich in ophtlralniology .and
Oskar E. Liebreich in pharmacol-
ogy were world famous medical
men. Richard, long associated
with St Thomas's - Hospital in
London, made a special study of
the influence of school life on
vision and invented two eye in-
struments which are • still in use
today. He also improved some of
the inventions of Helmholtz.
Showed Narcotic Effects
Oskar Liebreich discovered the
narcotic effect of chloral hydrate
and demonstrated the • narcotic
effects of ethylene chloride and
butyl chloride, drug of great
importance in medicine today.
The German city of Frankfort
on-the-Main was the birth place
of an amazing array of medical
minds of Jewish birth. Among
them was Albert Frankel, nephew
of Ludwig Traube, and.like him
an experimental pathologist
Moritz Schiff, from the same city,
was a leading biologist who oc-
cupied the chair of physiology at
the Institute de Studii Superiori
at Florence and afterwards a
similar position at the University
of Geneva.
Professor in Vienna
In Hungary, Moritz Benedikt
attained great fame as a neurolo-
gist, later becoming professor of
neurology at the University of
Vienna. He was famed through-
out the world as an electrologist,
and his work in criminology was
widely known. His studies on the
brains of criminals were trans-
lated into many languages and
were the authority in this field.
The greatest criminologist dur-
bing the last century was the
Italian Jew, Cesare Lombroso,
whose single volume Man of
Genius was the greatest work of
its kind ever written and even
today is regarded as- a classic. He
was the founder of the school of
criMinology which has for its

NEWS

principal contention that crim-
inals have certain well-defined
physical stigmata which are al-
ways easy to discern and measure.
Lombroso deducted two theories
with which his name is associ-
ated: First genius is a "peculiar
psychical form of larvate epi-
lepsy," and second, that "there
is a degenerate class of human
beings distinguished by anatom-
ical and psychical characteristics,
who are born with criminal in-
stincts and who represent a re-
version to a very primitiye form
of humanity."-
His Greatest Discovery
His greatest medical discovery
was made while he was at Pavia,
where he undertook a study of
pellagra, a disease which had long
afflicted the people of northern
Italy. He believed that he had
discovered its source in the
mouldy corn which these peo-
ple were in the habit of eating.
This in time gained world-wide
acceptance. However, this was
not the whole story in the case
of pellagra.
It remained for another Jewish
physician, Joseph Goldberger, to
discover more about the mys-
teries of ' pellagra and to help
banish it entirely as a disease of
mystery.
In psychiatry the Jew has at-
tained great prominence. This is
not so very strange, for, unfortu-
nately, there is a preponderance
of Jewish mental cases in many
insane asylums. Max Leidesdorf,
of Austria was a leading alienist
of his time. He was one of the
group who examined the mental
condition of the dethroned Murad'
and later that of Louis II of
Bavaria. In more recent times,
one of the world's greatest stu-
dents of the 'human mind was
Sigmund Freud whose develop-
ment of the science of psycho-
analysis had done much to clarify
many conceptions in psychiatry.
In the U. S. one of the first
practicing physicians was Jacob
Lumbrosi, who put out his
shingle in Maryland in 1639. He
is said to have been the only Jew
in that little Maryland group. It
was he who furnished the nuc-
leus of all knowledge that exist-

New Year's

"WEEDS"
"You can't get" something for
nothing"
Is *a true statement, I'll grant;
But there are things in my vic-
tory garden
That I'm sure I never did plant

LOUIS JAMES ROSENBERG,
vice-dean of the Detroit Consular
Corps, former. U. S. Consul in
Spain, for 22 years acting Con-
sul of Panama in Detroit, has
formed a law partnership with
I. R. Starr and I. Ernest Sachs.
* * *
DR. ALVIN D. HIRSCH, at-
torney, member of faculty of
the University of Detroit Law
School, and REV. JOSEPH Q.
MAYNE, executive secretary of
the Detroit • Round Table of
Catholics, Jews and Protestants,
will go to Louisville Sept. 11 and
12 to address several, civic
groups and assist in the organ-
ization of the Louisville Round
Table of the National Conference
of Christians and Jews.

New Year's

Greetings

Harry Weinberg's
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ew Years
reetings

Copyright 1945. Seven Arts Feature
Syndicate.

Local Brevities

8945-47 Twelfth St.

1311(1 BONDS

To Secure
The Peace

ed concerning the early Jewish
settlers in that state. Practically
every Jewish community after
his time had its own physician.
Major Contribution
During the previous century
many physicians of the Jewish
faith rose to great fame. Among
the most noted was Abraham
Jacobi who did much to put
pediatrics on a scientific basis.
Another was- Dr. Koller who did
much for adVancing the study
and treatment of diseases of the
eye. In 1884 he introduced cocaine
as a local anesthetic in eye oper-
ations, which is considered a con-
tribution of major importance in
eye surgery.
With the discovery of the bac-
terial cause of diseases, a number
of distinguished Jewish bacteri-
ologists came to the fore. There
was Frankel who discovered the
germ of pneumonia, and NeisSer,
who discovered the germ of
gonorrhea, one of the greatest
achievements in modern medi-
cine. Anton Deickelbaum dis-
covered the bacillus which many
believe is the cause of influenza.
The process of phagocytosis
was discovered by Eli Metchni
koff, while the first physician to
make use of agglutination for the
diagnosis of typhoid was Widal
whose name is immortalized in
the test of that name, Haffkine
of Calcutta was the first to pre-
pare an effective treatment for
the dreaded bubonic plague.

Holiday Greetings
JACK HALPERIN'S

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New Year's

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