Leopold Bettelheim ( hu, Bettelheim Leopold, Bettelheim Meyer Léb, yi, Meyer Leb Bettelheim; 23 February 1777,
Galgócz – 9 April 1838) was a
Hungarian 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 ...
.
He was not only eminent in his profession, but was considered a
Hebraist
A Hebraist is a specialist in Jewish, Hebrew and Hebraic studies. Specifically, British and German scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries who were involved in the study of Hebrew language and literature were commonly known by this designation, a ...
of some importance. He lived in Galgócz (german: Freystadtl, today
Hlohovec
Hlohovec (german: Freistad(l) an der Waag, Hungarian ''Galgóc''), is a town in southwestern Slovakia, with a population of 21,508.
Name
The name comes from ''*Glogovec'', the Old Slavic name for a place densely overgrown by hawthorn. The Hung ...
,
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
) next to the river
Vág (german: Waag) and there held the responsible office of physician-in-ordinary to Count
Joseph Erdödy, the influential
court chancellor of Hungary, in whose private residence are still preserved the surgical instruments used by Bettelheim in saving the lives of the count and his family, together with documents recording some remarkable cures effected by him.
In 1830 Bettelheim was the recipient of a gold medal of honor from the emperor
Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to:
* Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407)
* Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450
* Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547
* Francis I, Duke of Saxe-Lau ...
for distinguished services to the royal family and to the nobility.
References
18th-century Hungarian people
Hungarian Jews
19th-century Hungarian physicians
People from Hlohovec
1777 births
1838 deaths
Court physicians
{{Hungary-med-bio-stub