Lucius Rüedi ''Lucius'' was the spelling used by Rüedi himself and his contemporaries. The spelling ''Luzius'' became frequent from about 1900. In the Anglo-American countries ''Rüedi'' is mostly spelt ''Ruedi''. (born at Igis ( Graubünden,

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

) – 1870 at

Alvaneu Alvaneu ('' Romansh: Alvagni'') is a former municipality in the district of Albula in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of Alvaschein, Mon, Stierva, Tiefencastel, Alvaneu, Brienz/Brinzauls and ...

(Graubünden)) was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

pulmonologist Pulmonology (, , from Latin ''pulmō, -ōnis'' "lung" and the Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language fam ...

and pioneer of

climatotherapy Climatotherapy refers to temporary or permanent relocation of a patient to a region with a climate more favourable to recovery from or management of a condition. Examples include: * The partial pressure of oxygen is lower at high altitude, so a per ...

Significance

Lucius Rüedi was the first physician to discover the healing effect of the high-Alpine

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. In May 1844 he reported in a letter to the

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

health spa Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, pain ...

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

Conrad Meyer-Ahrens that children suffering from tuberculosis at various levels of severity were sent home cured with nothing but

scar A scar (or scar tissue) is an area of fibrosis, fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. Scars result from the biological process of wound repair in the skin, as well as in other Organ (anatomy), organs, and biological tissue, t ...

s in the

lung The lungs are the primary Organ (biology), organs of the respiratory system in many animals, including humans. In mammals and most other tetrapods, two lungs are located near the Vertebral column, backbone on either side of the heart. Their ...

after having treated by him. Rüedi's discovery shattered the prejudice about the so-called ''" mountain disease"'' prevalent among alleged experts at that time. The thin, cold air at high altitudes, they argued, would excessively stimulate and ruin the lung, thus soon causing a general decay of the body. For the therapy of lung diseases physicians preferred to send well-off patients to warm regions on the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

, like the

Italian Riviera The Italian Riviera or Ligurian Riviera ( ; ) is the narrow coastal strip in Italy which lies between the Ligurian Sea and the mountain chain formed by the Maritime Alps and the Apennines. Longitudinally it extends from the border with F ...

, the

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Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Professional life

In the periods 1828-30 and 1835-48 Lucius Rüedi was a district doctor at

Davos Davos (, ; or ; ; Old ) is an Alpine resort town and municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of (). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian ...

(Graubünden), from the summer of 1848 at Alvaneu (Graubünden).

Private Life and Family

Lucius Rüedi was married to Rahel Conrad. The couple had eight children, among them six boys. Wilhelm was the eldest, Carl the youngest. Like their father, several sons became physicians. Wilhelm, Paul (born 1844) and Carl (1848–1901) practiced some time in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The best-known was

Carl Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of tel ...

who treated the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

in the winters of 1880-81 and 1881-82.

Notes

References

* The Davos Courier, vol. XIV, no. 14-15, June 14, 1901, no page given. * Davoser Blätter. Verkehrs-Organ für Ragaz, Prättigau, Davos and Engadin; XXX. annual vol., no. 25, Davos, June 22, 1901, no page given. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ruedi, Carl Year of birth missing 1870 deaths People from Landquart District Swiss pulmonologists