Rokitansky, KARL, BARON VON

Rokitansky, KARL, BARON VON, founder of the school of pathological anatomy at Vienna, was born at Königgrätz in Bohemia on 19th February 1804, studied medicine at Prague and Vienna, in 1828 was appointed assistant to the professor of Pathological Anatomy in the university of the latter city, and in 1834 succeeded him. He likewise held the offices of professor at the city infirmary, legal anatomist to the city, and medical adviser to the ministry of education and public worship. In 1869 he was made president of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He retired from work in 1875, and died on 23d July 1878. Although Rokitansky agreed with the old humoral pathologists in so far that he regarded the changes of the blood as the chief immediate causes of disease, he laid the principal stress of medical study upon morbid anatomy, post-mortem dissection, and observation. He stands pre-eminent amongst German medical teachers as the one who established pathological anatomy as the basis of all original scientific inquiry in the domain of medicine. His teachings were published in the great work Handbuch der pathologischen Anatomie (5 vols. 1842-46; 3d ed. 1855-61; Eng. trans. of Sydenham Society, 4 vols. 1849-52), and in Memorials of the Vienna Academy of Sciences. See an anonymous Biography (Vienna, 1874).