Julius Wagner-Jauregg (; 7 March 1857 – 27 September 1940) was an Austrian

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, who won the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accordi ...

in 1927, and is the first psychiatrist to have done so. His Nobel award was "for his discovery of the therapeutic value of malaria inoculation in the treatment of dementia paralytica".

Early life

Ritter Wagner von Jauregg (1883) – Gerd Hruška

Julius Wagner-Jauregg was born Julius Wagner on 7 March 1857 in Wels,

Upper Austria Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, an ...

, the son of Adolph Johann Wagner and Ludovika Jauernigg Ranzoni."Physiology or medicine, 1922-1941"
Jan Lindsten. World Scientific, 1999. p. 170. , . His family name was changed to "Wagner von Jauregg" when his father was given the title of " Ritter von Jauregg" (a hereditary title of nobility) in 1883 by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Hence he retained the name Julius Wagner Ritter von Jauregg until 1918 when the empire was dissolved, and nobility was abolished. The family name was then contracted to "Wagner-Jauregg". He attended the Schottengymnasium in Vienna before going on to study

Medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

at 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 hi ...

from 1874 to 1880, where he also studied with

Salomon Stricker Salomon Stricker (1 January 1834 – 2 April 1898) was an Austrian pathologist and histologist. Career Stricker was born in Waag-Neustadtl (Hungarian: Vágújhely, now Nové Mesto nad Váhom in Slovakia). He studied at the University of Vienna, ...

in the Institute of General and Experimental Pathology. He obtained his doctorate in 1880 with the thesis "L'origine et la fonction du cœur accéléré." He left the institute in 1882.

Later years

After leaving the clinic, he conducted laboratory experiments with animals, which was practiced very little at this time. From 1883 to 1887 he worked with Maximilian Leidesdorf in the Psychiatric Clinic, although his original training was not in the pathology of the nervous system. In 1889 he succeeded the famous Richard von Krafft-Ebing at the Neuro-Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Graz, and started his research on Goitre,

cretinism Congenital iodine deficiency syndrome is a medical condition present at birth marked by impaired physical and mental development, due to insufficient thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism) often caused by insufficient dietary iodine during pregnancy. It ...

and

iodine Iodine is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid at standard conditions that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , ...

. In 1893 he became Extraordinary Professor of Psychiatry and Nervous Diseases, and Director of the Clinic for Psychiatry and Nervous Diseases 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 ...

, as successor to Theodor Meynert. A student and assistant of Wagner-Jauregg during this time was Constantin von Economo. Ten years later, in 1902, Wagner-Jauregg moved to the psychiatric clinic at the General Hospital and in 1911 he returned to his former post. In 1935, he was awarded the

Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh The Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh is awarded by the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine to a person who has made any highly important and valuable addition to Practical Therapeutics in the previous five ye ...

Nobel prize

The main work pursued by Wagner-Jauregg throughout his life was related to the treatment of mental disease by inducing a

fever Fever, also referred to as pyrexia, is defined as having a temperature above the normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature set point. There is not a single agreed-upon upper limit for normal temperature with sources using val ...

, an approach known as pyrotherapy. In 1887 he investigated the effects of febrile diseases on

psychoses Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is Reality, real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are thought disorder, incohe ...

, making use of erisipela and tuberculin (discovered in 1890 by Robert Koch). Since these methods of treatment did not work very well, he tried in 1917 the inoculation of

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. ...

parasites, which proved to be very successful in the case of dementia paralytica (also called general paresis of the insane), caused by neurosyphilis, at that time a

terminal disease Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer, dementia or advanced he ...

. It had been observed that some who develop high fevers could be cured of syphilis. Thus, from 1917 to the mid 1940s, malaria induced by the least aggressive parasite, Plasmodium vivax, was used as treatment for tertiary syphilis because it produced prolonged and high fevers (a form of pyrotherapy). This was considered an acceptable risk because the malaria could later be treated with quinine, which was available at that time. This discovery earned him the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1927. His main publication was a book titled ''Verhütung und Behandlung der progressiven Paralyse durch Impfmalaria'' (Prevention and treatment of progressive paralysis by malaria inoculation) in the Memorial Volume of the Handbuch der experimentellen Therapie, (1931). The technique was known as malariotherapy; however, it was dangerous, killing about 15% of patients, so it is no longer in use.

Sex treatment for psychosis

Wagner-Jauregg administered thyroid and ovarian preparations to young psychotic patients who had experienced delayed puberty, which led to the development of their secondary sexual characteristics and diminished psychosis. Other patients were deemed

schizophrenic Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social w ...

because of excessive

masturbation Masturbation is the sexual stimulation of one's own genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation may involve hands, fingers, everyday objects, sex toys such as vibrators, or combinat ...

, where Wagner-Jauregg sterilized them, resulting in an "improved" condition.

Retirement

In 1928, Wagner-Jauregg retired from his post but remained active and in good health until his death on 27 September 1940. In his retirement he published nearly 80 scientific papers. Many schools, roads and hospitals are named after him in Austria.

Nazi ideology and affiliation

Towards his last days Wagner-Jauregg was influenced by Hitler's German nationalism, and became an

anti-Semite Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and sympathizer of Nazism. Documentary evidence indicates that he supported the

Nazi party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

shortly after the invasion of Austria in 1938 by Germany."The Trials of Masculinity: Policing Sexual Boundaries, 1870-1930"
Angus McLaren. University of Chicago Press, 1999. , . Retrieved March 16, 2010."A historical dictionary of psychiatry"
Edward Shorter. Oxford University Press US, 2005. p. 299. , "The complete idiot's guide to understanding the brain"
Arthur Bard, Mitchell Geoffrey Bard. Alpha Books, 2002. p. 49. , .Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857-1940), Magda Whitrow. Smith-Gordon, 1993. p. 199. , . However, a

denazification Denazification (german: link=yes, Entnazifizierung) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by remov ...

commission in Austria found that his application for NSDAP membership had been refused "...on grounds of race", as his first wife Balbine Frumkin was Jewish."Vienna: a doctor's guide : 15 walking tours through Vienna's medical history"
Wolfgang Regal, Michael Nanut. Springer, 2007. p. 75. , . Wagner-Jauregg advocated a racial hygiene ideology called

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior o ...

, influencing students such as

Alexander Pilcz Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

, who went on to author a standard handbook on racial psychiatry critical of Jews for being prone to mental illness. He was also an advocate of forced sterilization of the mentally ill and criminal, having endorsed the concept in 1935 while a member of the Austrian Anthropological Society. He was President of the Austrian League for Racial Regeneration and Heredity, which advocated sterilization for those of inferior genetics."Freud's foes: psychoanalysis, science, and resistance"
Kurt Jacobsen. Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. p. 105. 0742522636, 9780742522633.

References

External links

* including the Nobel Lecture on December 13, 1927 ''The Treatment of Dementia Paralytica by Malaria Inoculation''
Nazi past
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner-Jauregg, Julius 1857 births 1940 deaths People from Wels Greater German People's Party politicians Austrian knights Austrian neuroscientists Austrian psychiatrists Austrian Nobel laureates Austro-Hungarian Nobel laureates Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine Malariologists Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery German nationalists