A manual of pathological anatomy (Volume 1-2).

  • Carl von Rokitansky
Date:
1855
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of pathological anatomy (Volume 1-2). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Vlll EDITOR S PREFACE. On the other hand the editor has felt the necessity of abridging somewhat the author's general introduction, partly because, totally unlike the general tendency of the work, it is of too transcen- dental a character either to suit the English language or to har- monize with English ideas; but more particularly because it is interwoven with a train of speculative reasoning upon the relation between power and matter, which might, in this country, very possibly give rise to misinterpretation and rebuke. What Dr. Sieveking justly alleges of the general peculiarities of Rokitansky's style, and of the difficulty of rendering his writings intelligible in English, is, by all who are conversant with the origi- nal, admitted to apply with especial force to the first volume. Upon this ground the editor ventures to urge his claim for a fair measure of indulgence on the reader's part. In conclusion, the editor, having been disappointed of a promised autobiographical sketch, takes leave to subjoin a few extracts from a short account of the career of this great pathologist, copied by a friendly hand from the last edition [1854] of Brockhaus's Conver- sations Lexicon. Charles Rokitansky, the founder of the German [it should rather have been called Austrian] medico-anatomical school, was born at Konigsgraetz, in Bohemia, was educated at the Gymnasium of Leitneritz, and graduated, at Vienna, in 1828. Shortly afterwards he was appointed Assistant in the pathologico-anatomical department of the University, and, in 1834, Professor of Pathological Anatomy. At the same time he was instituted Prosector at the General [united Civil and Military] Hospital at Vienna, and also sole medico-legal Anatomist for the examination of all doubtful cases of death through- out that metropolis. The immense fund of materials thus placed at his disposal [the number of corpses dissected by him is summed up at 30,000] was almost entirely reserved for the elaboration of that grand work on pathological anatomy, which, in the consciousness of having thoroughly mastered the subject, he gave to the world between the years 1842 and 1846; which has passed, unaltered, through three reimpressions; and which, under the auspices of the Sydenham Society, has been translated into the English language. In 1849, Rokitansky was appointed Dean of the Medical Faculty, and, in 1850, Rector of the University, of Vienna. York, January, 1855.