Israel Hwasser (17 September 1790 in

Älvkarleby Älvkarleby () is a locality situated in Älvkarleby Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden with 1,647 inhabitants in 2010. It is not the seat of the municipality, a function held by Skutskär 7 km to the north. See also *Älgen Stolta ...

- 11 May 1860 in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

) was a Swedish medical doctor and professor, who became a member of the

Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy ( sv, Svenska Akademien), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III of Sweden, Gustav III, is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish lang ...

in 1854. Hwasser was the son of the vicar in Älvkarleby parish, Lars Adolph Hwasser, and Margareta Catharina Djurman. He grew up in the vicarage, receiving his schooling at home. When he was 14 years old he took the finishing exam, ''

studentexamen Studentexamen (Swedish for "students' examination" or "students' degree"), earlier also ''mogenhetsexamen'' ("maturity examination") was the name of the university entrance examination in Sweden from the 17th century to 1968. From 1862 to 1968 ...

'', in Uppsala, and went on to study medicine there. In 1813 he finished his studies and defended his dissertation to become a

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

. The subject of his dissertation was the treatment of fevers with cold water. Hwasser joined the Swedish troops as a military doctor in the

War of the Sixth Coalition In the War of the Sixth Coalition (March 1813 – May 1814), sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation, a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, and a number of German States defeated F ...

(part of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

) in 1813-14. He served in Germany and Norway. After his return to Sweden, he pursued further studies in surgery at the

Karolinska Institute The Karolinska Institute (KI; sv, Karolinska Institutet; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden. The Karolinska Institute is consist ...

in Stockholm. In 1817, at the age of 26, he was appointed Professor of medicine in

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

. While he was there, he gradually changed his view of medicine, beginning to believe that humans caused their own illness, while healing was a divine force. In 1827, the

Great Fire of Turku The Great Fire of Turku ( fi, Turun palo, sv, Åbo brand and russian: Пожар Або) was a conflagration in the city of Turku in 1827. It is still the largest urban fire in the history of Finland and the Nordic countries. The city had burned ...

led to the move of the faculty of medicine, together with the rest of the

Royal Academy of Turku The Royal Academy of Turku or the Royal Academy of Åbo ( sv, Kungliga Akademin i Åbo or ; la, Regia Academia Aboensis; fi, Turun akatemia) was the first university in Finland, and the only Finnish university that was founded when the country ...

, to

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. Hwasser moved, too, but he only remained in Helsinki until 1830, when he applied for a professorship in Uppsala. He returned to Uppsala in order to fight against plans to locate all medical education in Sweden at the Karolinska Institute. He would continue his vocal criticism of Karolinska for 30 years, something that made him somewhat controversial. His opposition to the more scientific

Jöns Jacob Berzelius Baron Jöns Jacob Berzelius (; by himself and his contemporaries named only Jacob Berzelius, 20 August 1779 – 7 August 1848) was a Swedish chemist. Berzelius is considered, along with Robert Boyle, John Dalton, and Antoine Lavoisier, to be on ...

has been likened to the opposition in the earlier century between

Emanuel Swedenborg Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758). Swedenborg had ...

and

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

Henrik Schück Henrik Schück (2 November 1855 – 3 October 1947) was a Swedish literary historian, university professor and author. Biography Johan Henrik Emil Schück was a professor at the Lund University 1890–1898. He was a professor at Uppsala Univer ...

, Karl Warburg,
Illustrerad svensk litteraturhistoria
' (3rd ed. 1930), page 6:22. Hwasser was a well-liked teacher of medicine among students and other teachers, and the number of medical students increased during his years as professor. His theories about the philosophical underpinnings of medicine were however less popular. He was also outspoken about his views on public morality and decency, and in his last years he expressed deep admiration for Tsar Nicholas I as the defender of Christendom against liberalism, socialism and godlessness. Hwasser was a member of the

Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala The Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskaps-Societeten i Uppsala), is the oldest of the royal academies in Sweden, having been founded in 1710. The society has, by royal decree of 1906, 50 Swedish fellows and 100 foreign. ...

, the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

and the

Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities also called simply the Royal Academy of Letters or Vitterhetsakademin abbreviated KVHAA ( sv, Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien Historie och Antikvitets Akademien or or ) is the Swedish royal ...

. In 1854, he was made a member of the

. While a member of the latter institution he wrote various texts on literary criticism, mainly focusing on public morality. He married Anna Charlotta Wadsberg in 1817. She died in 1852. He resigned his professorship in 1855, at the age of 65, but continued teaching until his death in 1860. He is buried at Uppsala old cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hwasser, Israel 1790 births 1860 deaths Academic staff of Uppsala University Members of the Swedish Academy Burials at Uppsala old cemetery 19th-century Swedish physicians Swedish expatriates in Finland