Moritz Benedikt also spelt Moriz (4 July 1835, in Eisenstadt,

Sopron County Sopron (German: ''Ödenburg'') was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now divided between Austria and Hungary. The capital of the county was Sopron. Geography Sopron county shared borders with the A ...

– 14 April 1920, 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 ...

) was a Hungarian-

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

who was a native of Eisenstadt. He was an instructor and professor of neurology 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 hist ...

. Benedikt was a physician with the Austrian army during the

Second Italian War of Independence The Second Italian War of Independence, also called the Franco-Austrian War, the Austro-Sardinian War or Italian War of 1859 ( it, Seconda guerra d'indipendenza italiana; french: Campagne d'Italie), was fought by the Second French Empire and t ...

(1859) and the Austro-Prussian War. Benedikt was a specialist in the fields of

electrotherapeutics Electrotherapeutics is a general term for the use of electricity in therapeutics, i.e. in the alleviation and cure of disease. It is used as a treatment, like electroconvulsive therapy and TENS. In the technical working of medical electrolysis the ...

and

neuropathology Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole-body autopsies. Neuropathologists usually work in a department of anatomic pathology, but work closely with the clini ...

. His name is lent to the eponymous " Benedikt's syndrome", a disease characterized by ipsilateral

oculomotor The oculomotor nerve, also known as the third cranial nerve, cranial nerve III, or simply CN III, is a cranial nerve that enters the orbit through the superior orbital fissure and innervates extraocular muscles that enable most movements of ...

paralysis with contralateral tremor and

hemiparesis Hemiparesis, or unilateral paresis, is weakness of one entire side of the body ('' hemi-'' means "half"). Hemiplegia is, in its most severe form, complete paralysis of half of the body. Hemiparesis and hemiplegia can be caused by different medi ...

caused by a

lesion A lesion is any damage or abnormal change in the tissue of an organism, usually caused by disease or trauma. ''Lesion'' is derived from the Latin "injury". Lesions may occur in plants as well as animals. Types There is no designated classif ...

involving the

red nucleus The red nucleus or nucleus ruber is a structure in the rostral midbrain involved in motor coordination. The red nucleus is pale pink, which is believed to be due to the presence of iron in at least two different forms: hemoglobin and ferritin. ...

and

corticospinal tract The corticospinal tract is a white matter motor pathway starting at the cerebral cortex that terminates on lower motor neurons and interneurons in the spinal cord, controlling movements of the limbs and trunk. There are more than one million neur ...

in the

midbrain tegmentum The midbrain is anatomically delineated into the tectum (roof) and the tegmentum (floor). The midbrain tegmentum extends from the substantia nigra to the cerebral aqueduct in a horizontal section of the midbrain. It forms the floor of the midbrain ...

. Benedikt is remembered today for his controversial research in criminal

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

. He performed numerous cephalometric studies, and postulated that there were specific differences between "normal" and "criminal brains". He explained his research on the subject in a book titled "Anatomical Studies upon the Brains of Criminals" (title of English translation). Benedikt is credited for coining the word "darsonvalisation" to describe

therapeutic A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many different ...

or experimental applications of pulsed high frequency (110–400 kHz) high voltage (around 10–20 kV) current of a few mA. Sources which cite power ic/nowiki> of 100–200 mA should be disregarded; this implies power in the order of kilowatts. Darsonvalisation was named in honor of French

biophysicist Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...

Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval (8 June 1851 – 31 December 1940) was a French physician, physicist and inventor of the moving-coil D'Arsonval galvanometer and the thermocouple ammeter. D'Arsonval was an important contributor to the emerging field of ...

(1851–1940). Benedikt also took an interest in

dowsing Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, claimed radiations ( radiesthesia),As translated from one preface of the Kassel experiments, "roughly 10,000 active dowsers in ...

(

radiesthesia Radiesthesia describes an ability to detect radiation emitted by a person, animal, object or geographical feature. There is no scientific evidence of the existence of this pseudoscientific or occult phenomenon. Definitions One definition is " ...

), writing two books on this subject ''Leitfaden der Rutenlehre'' (eng. ''Guideline to use of Divining Rods'') and ''Ruten- und Pendellehre'' (eng. ''Instructions in Diving Rods and Pendulums'')

Publications

* Moriz Benedikt: ''Die psychologischen Funktionen des Gehirnes in gesundem und kranker Zustand'', Wiener Klinik: Vorträge; Jg. 1, H. 7, Wien, 1875 * Moriz Benedikt: ''Zur Lehre von der Localisation der Gehirnfunctionen'', Wiener Klinik: Vorträge; Jg. 9, H. 5-6, Vienna, 1875 * Moriz Benedikt: ''Ueber Katalepsie und Mesmerismus'', Wiener Klinik: Vorträge; Jg. 6, H. 3/4, Vienna, 1880 * Moriz Benedikt: ''Ueber Elektricität in der Medicin'', Wiener Klinik: Vorträge; Jg. 10, H. 2, Vienna, 1884 * Moriz Benedikt: ''Grundformeln des neuropathologischen Denkens'', Wiener Klinik: Vorträge; Jg. 11, H. 4, Vienna, 1885 * Moriz Benedikt: ''Hypnotismus und Suggestion'', Breitenstein, Leipzig, 1894 * Moriz Benedikt: ''Seelenkunde des Menschen als reine Erfahrungswissenschaft'', Reisland, Leipzig, 1895 * Moriz Benedikt: ''Krystallisation und Morphogenesis'', Perles, Vienna, 1904 * Moriz Benedikt: ''Aus meinem Leben: Erinnerungen und Erörterungen'', Konegen, Vienna, 1906 * Moriz Benedikt: ''Biomechanik und Biogenesis'', , Jena, 1912 * Moriz Benedikt: ''Die latenten (Reichenbach'schen) Emanationen der Chemikalien'', Konegen, Vienna, 1915 * Moriz Benedikt: ''Leitfaden der Rutenlehre (Wünschelrute)'', Urban & Schwarzenberg, Vienna, 1916; modern edition * Moriz Benedikt: ''Ruten- und Pendellehre'', , Vienna, 1917

Sources

Moritz Benedikt’s Localization of Morality in the Occipital Lobes
Short Biography of Moritz Benedikt

@

Who Named It ''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograp ...

* , Dr Moritz Benedikt, Verlagsbuchhandlung Carl Konegen, Vienna, 1906.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benedikt, Moritz 1835 births 1920 deaths 19th-century Hungarian people 19th-century Austrian people 20th-century Austrian people Austrian neurologists Hungarian neurologists Academics of the University of Vienna Hungarian Jews People from Eisenstadt