Carl Ernst Bock was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 and anatomist.

Born in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 to anatomist Carl August Bock, he studied at the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

, from which he graduated in 1831. During the November Uprising

November Uprising

The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...

 in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, he served as a hospital physician for both the Polish and Russian armies. On returning to Leipzig in 1832 he became a private lecturer, and in 1837 was appointed to preside over autopsies

Autopsy

An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...

 at Leipzig's hospital. In 1839 he was appointed extraordinary professor of pathological anatomy, and in 1850 became head of the university's clinical department.

In addition to his writings on anatomical and surgical matters, in his later years Bock wrote numerous essays and books on public health. These were written in clear and strident language and addressed to a popular audience, roughly in the style of Ernst Keil's Die Gartenlaube

Die Gartenlaube

Die Gartenlaube Illustrirtes Familienblatt , was a forerunner of modern magazines, and the first major success of the German weekly. The name means "The Garden Arbor Family Journal" but the magazine is known worldwide as "Die Gartenlaube"...

, and so gained him a good deal of public recognition and influence.

Selected works

• Handbuch der Anatomie des Menschen, mit Berücksichtigung der Physiologie und chirurgischen Anatomie (Handbook of Human Anatomy, with Consideration to Physiology and Surgical Anatomy, 1838)
• Anatomisches Taschenbuch (Anatomical Paperback, 1839)
• Handatlas der Anatomie des Menschen (Portable Atlas of Human Anatomy, 1843)
• Lehrbuch der pathologischen Anatomie und Diagnostik (Textbook of Pathological Anatomy and Diagnosis, 1848)
• Atlas der pathologischen Anatomie (Atlas of Pathological Anatomy, 1855)
• Buch vom gesunden und kranken Menschen (Book of Healthy and Ill Humans, 1855)
• Volksgesundheitslehrer (Public Health Teachers, 1865)
• Bau, Leben und Pflege des menschlichen Körpers (Constitution, Life, and Care of the Human Body, 1868)

External links