Josephus Struthius ( Polish: Józef Struś; 1510 in

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

– between 27 July 1568 and 26 January 1569 in Poznań) was a Polish professor of

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

(1535–1537) and personal physician for Polish kings. He also served as mayor of Poznań in 1557–1558 and 1558–1559. He wrote several books and was among the first to provide a visual representation of the human pulse and use it for diagnostic purposes.

Biography

Struś was born to a maltmaker Mikołaj and Elżbieta, a daughter of the Mayor of Poznań. He was educated at the local school associated with the church of St. Mary Magdalene and then studied at the Collegium Lubranscianum before joining the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

. He was influenced by the German reformer Christopher Hegendorf (1500–1540) at the Collegium Lubrascianum. He studied at the faculty of philosophy for two years and then moved to the faculty of medicine in 1527. He continued studies and obtained a master's degree in 1531. He wrote on the astrology of Luciani Samosatensis. In 1532 he went to study medicine in Padua where he started examining the works of Galen and Hippocrates, translating their works from Greek to Latin. After receiving a doctoral degree in 1535 he joined the Padua University faculty. He taught numerous students and influenced

Andreas Vesalius Andries van Wezel (31 December 1514 – 15 October 1564), latinized as Andreas Vesalius (), was an anatomist and physician who wrote '' De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem'' (''On the fabric of the human body'' ''in seven books''), which is ...

among them. In 1537 he moved to Poland and became a physician to Andrzej Górka. His treatment of Isabella Jagiellon, daughter of King Sigismund I the Old (1467–1548) brought him recognition. He was part of a delegation to Constantinople, where he treated the Turkish

Suleiman the Magnificent Suleiman I (; , ; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the Western world and as Suleiman the Lawgiver () in his own realm, was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman sultan between 1520 a ...

(1494–1566) who was suffering from a chronic illness. His popularity in Padua led to his becoming mayor in 1557 and in 1558. He died at Poznań in 1568 during a plague epidemic and was buried in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. Pulse Struthius

His conceptual approach to measurement of the pulse is regarded as pioneering and revolutionary. In ''Sphygmicae artis iam mille ducentos annos perditae et desideratae libri V.'' (first published 1540 in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, but only copies from 1555 are accessible) he described five types of

pulse In medicine, the pulse refers to the rhythmic pulsations (expansion and contraction) of an artery in response to the cardiac cycle (heartbeat). The pulse may be felt ( palpated) in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surfac ...

s, the diagnostic meaning of those types, and the influence of

body temperature Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature ...

and

nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the complex system, highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its behavior, actions and sense, sensory information by transmitting action potential, signals to and from different parts of its body. Th ...

on pulse. As a memory aid he used the palm and fingers to the types of pulse. It contains probably the earliest graphic presentation of the pulse, making use of musical notes for long, breve, and semibreve. He also noted that the pulse could be used to detect lies and reactions of people. This was one of books used by

William Harvey William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) was an English physician who made influential contributions to anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, pulmonary and systemic circulation ...

in his works. Robert Burton wrote of Josephus Struthius in '' The Anatomy of Melancholy'': "Josephus Struthius, that Polonian, in the fifth book, _cap. 17._ of his Doctrine of Pulses, holds that ..passions of the mind may be discovered by the pulse." In his book he introduced a set of rules about pulse to be remembered using the fingers as illustrated. Each finger had three degrees of intensity the thumb was for amplitude, the index for duration of systolic pulse, the middle finger for the frequency of the pulse, the fourth for pulse wave velocity, and the little finger for the tension of the pulse.

Works

As author

* ''Ad medicum... D. Cyprianum de Łowicz, de medicae artis excellentia, carmen elegiacum''. Kraków: M. Szarffenberg, 1529. * ''Ad Joannem Latalscium... elegia'', wyd. w: K. Hegendorfin ''Declamatio gratulatoria'', Kraków: drukarnia Wietora 1530. * ''Ad bonae mentis adoloscentes elegiacum carmen paraeneticum i. e. exhortativum ad studium eloquentiae''. In K. Hegendorfin, ''Declamatio gratulatoria''. Kraków: drukarnia H. Wietor, 1530. * ''Sanctissimi Patris... Joannis a Lasco... epicedion elegiacis versibus confectum''. Kraków: drukarnia M. Szarffenberg, 1531. * ''Sphygmicae artis... libri V''. Bazylea: Johannes Oporinus, 1555. ** Later editions: As ''Artis sphygmicae... libri quinque'', Wenecja, 1573; as ''Ars sphygmica seu pulsum doctrina...'', Bazylea, 1602; partial Polish translation in ''Wybór tekstów do dziejów kultury Wielkopolski'', Poznań, 1962. * ''Opera medica, scil. de ortu et causis metallorum, de medicamentorum spagyrica praeparatione, sclopetarius et antidotarium spagyriticum''. Frankfurt nad Odrą, 1591.Copy unknown. Work cited in J. Draudius' ''Bibliotheca classica'' (1625), which was pointed out by Henryk Barycz.

As translator

Lucian Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridi ...

. ''Declamatio quaedam lepidissima'', printed with Lucian. ''Astrologia...''. Kraków: M. Szarffenberg, 1531. * C. Galenus. ''Astrologia''. Venice: J. Patavinus i V. de Ruffinellis, 1535. * C. Galenus. ''De urinis liber''. Venice: J. Patavinus and V. de Ruffinellis, 1535. * C. Galenus. ''Antidotarius''. Venice: J. A. de Nicolinis de Sabio, 1536. * C. Galenus. ''De antidotis''. Venice: J. A. de Nicolinis de Sabio, 1537, * C. Galenus. ''Librum Hippocratis de fracturis commentariorum libri tres''. Venice: B. Zanettus, 1538.

As editor

* C. Galenus. ''De differentiis morborum liber''. Kraków: H. Wietor, 1537. Translated from Greek to Latin by G. Copus.

References

External links

Biography on the website of Polish Cardiological Society (in Polish)

1510 births 1560s deaths Physicians from Poznań 16th-century Polish physicians 16th-century Polish politicians {{poland-med-bio-stub