Josef Škoda
Encyclopedia
Joseph Škoda was a Czech physician
, medical professor and dermatologist. Together with Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky
, he was the founder of the Modern Medical School of Vienna.
, as the son of a locksmith. He attended the gymnasium
at Pilsen, entered the University of Vienna
in 1825, and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine
on 10 July 1831.
He first served in Bohemia as physician during the outbreak of cholera
, was assistant physician in the General Hospital of Vienna
, 1832–38, in 1839 city physician of Vienna for the poor, and on 13 February 1840, on the recommendation of Dr. Ludwig Freiherr von Türkheim, chairman of the Imperial Committee of Education, was appointed to the unpaid position of chief physician of the department for tuberculosis
just opened in the general hospital.
In 1846, thanks to the energetic measures of Carl von Rokitansky
, professor of pathological anatomy, he was appointed professor of the medical clinic against the wishes of the rest of the medical faculty. In 1848 he began to lecture in German
instead of Latin
, being the first professor to do so. On 17 July 1848, he was elected an active member of the mathematico-physical section of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
. In Vienna in 1851 Škoda treated Petar II Petrovic Njegos who was suffering from pulmonary consumption, what we call today tuberculosis
.
Early in 1871, he retired from his professorship; the occasion was celebrated by the students and the population of Vienna by a great torchlight procession
in his honour. He died in Vienna. Rokitansky called him "a light for those who study, a model for those who strive, and a rock for those who despair". Škoda's benevolent disposition is best shown by the fact that, notwithstanding his large income and the known simplicity of his lifestyle, he left a comparatively small fortune, and in his will, bequeathed legacies to a number of benevolent institutions.
Joseph Škoda was an uncle to the industrialist Emil Škoda
.
Škoda's great merit lies in his development of the methods of physical investigation for diagnosis
in medicine
. The discovery of the method of percussion
diagnosis made in 1761 by the Viennese physician, Leopold Auenbrugger
(1722–1809), had been forgotten, and the knowledge of it was first revived in 1808 by the Frenchman Jean-Nicolas Corvisart
(1755–1821), court physician to Napoleon I
. René Laennec
(1787–1826) and his pupils Pierre Adolphe Piorry
(1794–1879) and Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud (1796–1881) added auscultation
to this method. Škoda began his clinical studies in close connexion with pathological anatomy while assistant physician of the hospital, but his superiors failed to understand his course, and in 1837, by way of punishment, transferred him to the ward for the insane, as it was claimed that the patients were annoyed by his investigations, especially by the method of percussion.
His first publication, "Über die Perkussion" (About Percussion) in the "Medizinische Jahrbücher des k.k. österreichen Kaiserstaates", IX (1836), attracted little attention. This paper was followed by: "Über den Herzstoss und die durch die Herzbewegungen verursachten Töne und über die Anwendung der Perkussion bei Untersuchung der Organe des Unterleibes" (About the Percussion of the Heart and the Sounds Originated by Heart Movements, and Its Application to the Investigation of Organs of the Abdomen), in the same periodical, vols XIII, XIV (1837); "Über Abdominaltyphus und dessen Behandlung mit Alumen crudum" (About Abdominal Typhus and Its Treatment with Alumen), also in the same periodical, vol. XV (1838); "Untersuchungsmethode zur Bestimmung des Zustandes des Herzens" (Methods of Investigation of the Conditions of the Heart), vol. XVIII (1839); "Über Pericarditis in pathologisch-anatomischer und diagnostischer Beziehung" (About Pericarditis in Pathological Anatomic and Diagnostic Relationships), XIX (1839); "Über Piorrys Semiotik und Diagnostik" (About Piorry's Semiotic and Diagnostics), vol. XVIII (1839); "Über die Diagnose der Herzklappenfehler" (About the Diagnosis of Defects of Heart Valves), vol. XXI (1840).
His small, but for many years afterwards, unsurpassed chief work, "Abhandlung über die Perkussion und Auskultation" (Vienna, 1839), was repeatedly published and translated into foreign languages and established his universal renown as a diagnostician.
In 1841, after a journey for research to Paris, he made a separate division in his department for skin diseases and thus gave the first impulse towards the reorganization of dermatology
by Ferdinand von Hebra. In 1848 at the request of the Ministry of Education he drew up a memorial on the reorganization of medical education
, and encouraged later by his advice the founding of the present higher administration of the Medical School of Vienna. As regards therapeutics the accusation was often made against him that he held to the "nihilism
" of the Vienna School. As a matter of fact his therapeutics were exceedingly simple in contrast to the great variety of remedial agents used at that time, which he regarded as useless, as in his experience many ailments were cured without medicines, merely by suitable medical supervision and proper diet
.
His high sense of duty as a teacher, the large amount of work he performed as a physician, and the early appearance of heart disease
are probably the reasons that from 1848 he published less and less. The few papers which he wrote from 1850 are to be found in the transactions of the Academy of Sciences and the periodical of the Society of Physicians of Vienna of which he was the honorary president.
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...
, medical professor and dermatologist. Together with Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky
Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky
Baron Carl von Rokitansky , was a Bohemian physician, pathologist, humanist philosopher and liberal politician.-Medical career:...
, he was the founder of the Modern Medical School of Vienna.
Life
Škoda was born in Pilsen, BohemiaBohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, as the son of a locksmith. He attended the gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
at Pilsen, entered the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
in 1825, and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
on 10 July 1831.
He first served in Bohemia as physician during the outbreak of cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
, was assistant physician in the General Hospital of Vienna
Vienna General Hospital
The Vienna General Hospital is the University medical center of the city of Vienna, Austria. The AKH is the largest hospital of Austria and Europe, the second largest hospital in the world, and at 85-m high is one of the tallest hospital buildings in the world...
, 1832–38, in 1839 city physician of Vienna for the poor, and on 13 February 1840, on the recommendation of Dr. Ludwig Freiherr von Türkheim, chairman of the Imperial Committee of Education, was appointed to the unpaid position of chief physician of the department for tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
just opened in the general hospital.
In 1846, thanks to the energetic measures of Carl von Rokitansky
Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky
Baron Carl von Rokitansky , was a Bohemian physician, pathologist, humanist philosopher and liberal politician.-Medical career:...
, professor of pathological anatomy, he was appointed professor of the medical clinic against the wishes of the rest of the medical faculty. In 1848 he began to lecture in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
instead of Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, being the first professor to do so. On 17 July 1848, he was elected an active member of the mathematico-physical section of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Austrian Academy of Sciences
The Austrian Academy of Sciences is a legal entity under the special protection of the Federal Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every field, particularly in fundamental research...
. In Vienna in 1851 Škoda treated Petar II Petrovic Njegos who was suffering from pulmonary consumption, what we call today tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
.
Early in 1871, he retired from his professorship; the occasion was celebrated by the students and the population of Vienna by a great torchlight procession
Procession
A procession is an organized body of people advancing in a formal or ceremonial manner.-Procession elements:...
in his honour. He died in Vienna. Rokitansky called him "a light for those who study, a model for those who strive, and a rock for those who despair". Škoda's benevolent disposition is best shown by the fact that, notwithstanding his large income and the known simplicity of his lifestyle, he left a comparatively small fortune, and in his will, bequeathed legacies to a number of benevolent institutions.
Joseph Škoda was an uncle to the industrialist Emil Škoda
Emil Škoda
Emil Ritter von Škoda was a Bohemian engineer and industrialist, working during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.-Biography:...
.
Works
Diagnosis
Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of anything. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines with variations in the use of logics, analytics, and experience to determine the cause and effect relationships...
in medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
. The discovery of the method of percussion
Percussion (medicine)
Percussion is a method of tapping on a surface to determine the underlying structure, and is used in clinical examinations to assess the condition of the thorax or abdomen. It is one of the four methods of clinical examination, together with inspection, palpation and auscultation...
diagnosis made in 1761 by the Viennese physician, Leopold Auenbrugger
Leopold Auenbrugger
Josef Leopold Auenbrugger or Leopold von Auenbrugg , Austrian physician who invented percussion as a diagnostic technique. On the strength of this discovery, he is considered one of the founders of modern medicine.-Biography:Auenbrugger was a native of Graz in Styria, an Austrian province...
(1722–1809), had been forgotten, and the knowledge of it was first revived in 1808 by the Frenchman Jean-Nicolas Corvisart
Jean-Nicolas Corvisart
Jean-Nicolas Corvisart was an important figure in the history of French medicine. Born in the French village of Dricourt, Ardennes in 1755, Corvisart gained early notoriety for his translation of Leopold von Auenbrugg's Inventum Novum from Latin into French...
(1755–1821), court physician to Napoleon I
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
. René Laennec
René Laennec
René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec was a French physician. He invented the stethoscope in 1816, while working at the Hôpital Necker and pioneered its use in diagnosing various chest conditions....
(1787–1826) and his pupils Pierre Adolphe Piorry
Pierre Adolphe Piorry
Pierre Adolphe Piorry was a French physician born in Poitiers. He invented pleximetry and was the creator of medical terms toxin, toxemia and septicemia....
(1794–1879) and Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud (1796–1881) added auscultation
Auscultation
Auscultation is the term for listening to the internal sounds of the body, usually using a stethoscope...
to this method. Škoda began his clinical studies in close connexion with pathological anatomy while assistant physician of the hospital, but his superiors failed to understand his course, and in 1837, by way of punishment, transferred him to the ward for the insane, as it was claimed that the patients were annoyed by his investigations, especially by the method of percussion.
His first publication, "Über die Perkussion" (About Percussion) in the "Medizinische Jahrbücher des k.k. österreichen Kaiserstaates", IX (1836), attracted little attention. This paper was followed by: "Über den Herzstoss und die durch die Herzbewegungen verursachten Töne und über die Anwendung der Perkussion bei Untersuchung der Organe des Unterleibes" (About the Percussion of the Heart and the Sounds Originated by Heart Movements, and Its Application to the Investigation of Organs of the Abdomen), in the same periodical, vols XIII, XIV (1837); "Über Abdominaltyphus und dessen Behandlung mit Alumen crudum" (About Abdominal Typhus and Its Treatment with Alumen), also in the same periodical, vol. XV (1838); "Untersuchungsmethode zur Bestimmung des Zustandes des Herzens" (Methods of Investigation of the Conditions of the Heart), vol. XVIII (1839); "Über Pericarditis in pathologisch-anatomischer und diagnostischer Beziehung" (About Pericarditis in Pathological Anatomic and Diagnostic Relationships), XIX (1839); "Über Piorrys Semiotik und Diagnostik" (About Piorry's Semiotic and Diagnostics), vol. XVIII (1839); "Über die Diagnose der Herzklappenfehler" (About the Diagnosis of Defects of Heart Valves), vol. XXI (1840).
His small, but for many years afterwards, unsurpassed chief work, "Abhandlung über die Perkussion und Auskultation" (Vienna, 1839), was repeatedly published and translated into foreign languages and established his universal renown as a diagnostician.
In 1841, after a journey for research to Paris, he made a separate division in his department for skin diseases and thus gave the first impulse towards the reorganization of dermatology
Dermatology
Dermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin and its diseases, a unique specialty with both medical and surgical aspects. A dermatologist takes care of diseases, in the widest sense, and some cosmetic problems of the skin, scalp, hair, and nails....
by Ferdinand von Hebra. In 1848 at the request of the Ministry of Education he drew up a memorial on the reorganization of medical education
Medical education
Medical education is education related to the practice of being a medical practitioner, either the initial training to become a doctor or additional training thereafter ....
, and encouraged later by his advice the founding of the present higher administration of the Medical School of Vienna. As regards therapeutics the accusation was often made against him that he held to the "nihilism
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
" of the Vienna School. As a matter of fact his therapeutics were exceedingly simple in contrast to the great variety of remedial agents used at that time, which he regarded as useless, as in his experience many ailments were cured without medicines, merely by suitable medical supervision and proper diet
Diet (nutrition)
In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. With the word diet, it is often implied the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management...
.
His high sense of duty as a teacher, the large amount of work he performed as a physician, and the early appearance of heart disease
Heart disease
Heart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...
are probably the reasons that from 1848 he published less and less. The few papers which he wrote from 1850 are to be found in the transactions of the Academy of Sciences and the periodical of the Society of Physicians of Vienna of which he was the honorary president.