ZUCKERKANDL, EMIL

ZUCKERKANDL, EMIL (1849–1910), Austrian anatomist and physical anthropologist. Born in Raab (Györ), Hungary, Zuckerkandl was appointed assistant demonstrator at the Viennese anatomical institute of Karl von Langer in 1874. Langer charged him with the study of skulls brought back by the expedition around the world of the frigate Novara in 1857–59. The results, published in 1875, were a precise anatomical description and an assessment of the influence of various abnormalities in the form of the particular skulls, and their influence upon the racial character. His monograph Zur Morphologie des Gesichtsschaedels (1877) contained studies of the ratio between cranial and facial form, prognathism and opistognathism, and provided a summary of these problems among diverse races and comparable primates. After fulfilling appointments at the universities of Vienna and Utrecht, he became professor of anatomy at Graz in 1882. In that year he published "Ueber asymmetrische Kranien, welche ohne Nahtobliteration enstehen," demonstrating the frequency of this phenomenon and explaining its causes by the disproportion between the cranium of the foetus and the diameter of the mother's uterus. This paper was followed by several others, all appearing in Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellchaft in Wien (vols. 4 and 5). His epoch-making book Normale und Pathologische Anatomie der Nasenhoehle und ihrer pneumatischen Anhaenge (2 vols., 1882–92) entitles him to be regarded as the founder of modern rhinology.

In 1883 Zuckerkandl participated in the study of the ancient charnel houses in the Austrian Alps at Styria, Carinthia, and Carmola. The results, published in the journal of the Austrian Anthropological Society (1883–88), contributed much valuable information regarding cephalic forms in the area. In 1888 Zuckerkandl returned to Vienna to succeed Langer as professor of descriptive and topographic anatomy and occupied this post until his death. Known as an excellent teacher, he at various periods served as dean of the medical faculty at Vienna. Several anatomical entities discovered and described by him bear his name. His bust, placed in the assembly hall of the University of Vienna, was removed by the Nazis.

His younger brother, otto zuckerkandl (1861–1921), was an eminent urologist and surgeon.

bibliography:

J. Pagel, Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Aerzte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (1901), 1907–08; C. Toldt, in: Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, 41 (1911), 154–6: J. Tandler, in: Anatomischer Anzeiger, 37 (1910), 86–96; Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift, 23 (1910), 798–800; S.R. Kagan, Jewish Medicine (1952), 151, 446.

[Ellen Friedman]