![Joseph Hyrtl](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Joseph_Hyrtl.jpg)
Josef Hyrtl (7 December 1810 – 17 July 1894) was an
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n
anatomist
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...
.
Biography
Hyrtl was born at
Kismarton
Eisenstadt (; hu, Kismarton; hr, Željezni grad; ; sl, Železno, Austro-Bavarian: ''Eisnstod'') is a city in Austria, the state capital of Burgenland. It had a recorded population on 29 April 2021 of 15,074.
In the Habsburg Empire's Kingdom ...
,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
(now
Eisenstadt
Eisenstadt (; hu, Kismarton; hr, Željezni grad; ; sl, Železno, Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ''Eisnstod'') is a city in Austria, the state capital of Burgenland. It had a recorded population on 29 April 2021 of 15,074.
In the Habsburg ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
). He began his medical studies in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
in 1831, having received his preliminary education in his native town. His parents were poor, and he had to find funds to defray the expenses of his medical education. In 1833, while he was still a student, he was named
prosector
A prosector is a person with the special task of preparing a dissection for demonstration, usually in medical schools or hospitals. Many important anatomists began their careers as prosectors working for lecturers and demonstrators in anatomy and p ...
in
anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...
, and the preparations which this position required him to make for teaching purposes attracted the attention of professors as well as students. His graduation thesis, ''Antiquitates anatomicæ rariores'', was a prophecy of the work to which his life was to be devoted. On graduation he became Prof. Czermak's assistant (famulus) and later became also the curator of the museum. He added valuable treasures to the museum by the preparations which he made for it. As a student he set up a little
laboratory
A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...
and
dissecting
Dissection (from Latin ' "to cut to pieces"; also called anatomization) is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause of ...
room in his lodgings, and his injections of anatomical material were greatly admired. He took advantage of his post in the museum to give special courses in anatomy to students and in practical anatomy to physicians. These courses were numerously attended.
In 1837, when only twenty-six, Hyrtl was offered the professorship of anatomy at the
University of Prague, and by his work there laid the foundation of his great reputation as a teacher of anatomy. There he completed his well-known textbook of human anatomy, which went through some twenty editions and has been translated into several languages. The chair of anatomy at Vienna fell vacant in 1845. Satisfied with the opportunities for work at Prague, he would not have applied for the post but for the insistence of his friends. He was immediately elected. Five years later he published his ''Handbook of Topographic Anatomy'', the first
textbook
A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textboo ...
of applied anatomy of its kind ever issued. Before his death he was to see this department of anatomy become one of the most important portions of the teaching in the medical schools of the world. It was as a teacher that Hyrtl did his great work. Professor
Karl von Bardeleben
Karl von Bardeleben (7 March 1849 – 19 December 1919) was a German anatomist born in Giessen. He was the son of surgeon Heinrich Adolf von Bardeleben (1819–1895).
He received his education at the Universities of Greifswald, Heidelberg, B ...
, himself one of the great teachers of the nineteenth century, did not hesitate to say that in this Hyrtl was unequalled. His fame spread throughout Europe, and he came to be looked upon as the special glory of the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
.
In 1858, he was visited by George Eliot and her partner. In her journal, she wrote: "Another great pleasure we had at Vienna—next after the sight of St. Stephen's and the pictures—was a visit to Hyrtl, the anatomist, who showed us some of his wonderful preparations, showing the vascular and nervous systems in the lungs, liver, kidneys, and intestinal canal of various animals. He told us the deeply interesting story of the loss of his fortune in the Vienna revolution of '48. He was compelled by the revolutionists to attend on the wounded for three days' running. When at last he came to his house to change his clothes he found nothing but four bare
0walls! His fortune in Government bonds was burned along with the house, as well as all his precious collection of anatomical preparations, etc. He told us that since that great shock his nerves have been so susceptible that he sheds tears at the most trifling events, and has a depression of spirits which often keeps him silent for days. He only received a very slight sum from Government in compensation for his loss."
In 1865, on the occasion of the celebration of the five-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the university, he was chosen rector in order that, as the most distinguished member of the university, he should represent her on that day. His inaugural address as rector had for its subject ''The Materialistic Conception of The Universe of Our Time''. In this he argued that there was clear lack of logic in the
materialistic Materialism is the view that the universe consists only of organized matter and energy.
Materialism or materialist may also refer to:
* Economic materialism, the desire to accumulate material goods
* Christian materialism, the combination of Chris ...
view of the world and concluded: "When I bring all this together it is impossible for me to understand on what
scientific
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
grounds is founded this resurrection of the old materialistic view of the world that had its first great expression from
Epicurus
Epicurus (; grc-gre, Ἐπίκουρος ; 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenced ...
and
Lucretius
Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into E ...
. Nothing that I can see justifies it, and there is no reason to think that it will continue to hold domination over men's minds."
His brother Jakob Hyrtl (1799-1868) was a Viennese engraver, who bequeathed to his brother Josef Hyrtl the skull attributed to
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
. Josef Hyrtl examined the skull and bequeathed it to the city of Salzburg.
[Puech P.-F. 2019. ''Applied Anthropology in the Biography of Mozart''. Human Evolution International Journal. Vol.34 (3-4): 259.]
In 1880 there was a magnificent celebration of Hyrtl's seventieth birthday, when messages of congratulation were sent to him from all the universities of the world. After retiring from his professorship he continued to do good work, his last publication being on
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
and
Hebraic
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
elements in anatomy. On the morning of 17 July 1894, he was found dead in bed at his estate near Vienna.
His monograph for the reform of anatomical terminology ''Onomatologia Anatomica'' (Vienna, 1880), attracted widespread attention.
References
Bibliography
* ''Lehrbuch der Anatomie des Menschen'' (Prague, 1846)
* ''Handbuch der topographischen Anatomie'', 2 vols., 8vo (Vienna, 1853)
* ''Handbuch der Zergliederungskunst'' (Vienna, 1860)
*
External link
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyrtl, Josef
1810 births
1894 deaths
19th-century Hungarian people
19th-century Austrian people
Hungarian anatomists
Hungarian scientists
Hungarian biologists
Austrian anatomists
Austrian biologists
Austrian people of Hungarian descent
People from Eisenstadt
Rectors of universities in Austria