Hyrtl, Joseph

(b. Kismarton, Hungary [now Eisenstadt, Austria], 7 December 1810; d. Perchtoldsdorf, Austria, 17 July 1894).

In the middle and latter parts of the nineteenth century anatomy became the most important of the basic sciences on which medicine drew, and Hyrtl was one of the anatomists responsible for this development. His scientific reputation stemmed especially from his Lehrbuch der Anatomie des Menschen mit Rücksicht auf physiologische Begründung und praktishe Anwendung, first published at Prague in 1846. In this well-written and clearly organized work he emphasized the material that was most important for the practitioner, rendering it entertaining through historical and etymological digressions. The book went through twenty editions and was translated into virtually every major language. A year later (1847) Hyrtl published his Handbuch der topographischen Anatomie, which likewise was widely read. He boasted that through this book he had introduced topographical anatomy into the German-speaking world and had made it an independent discipline.

Hyrtl also won worldwide recognition through his achievements as a technical anatomist. Delighting in precise work and trained in the tradition of an anatomy based on preparations, he was able through the skillful exploitation of his position as a university teacher to establish a virtual monopoly in the production and sale of special anatomical preparations. His microscopic injection preparations were considered unexcelled and, through exchange or purchase, reached all major anatomical museums. His corrosion preparations, made by injecting vessels and bone cavities with stiffening material and then destroying the surrounding soft tissue or bones by maceration, brought high prices. Hyrtl thus revived and further developed the source of morphological instruction that Frederik Ruysch had originally discovered. With this method he made investigations in comparative anatomy, for example, of the mammalian inner ear—from the mouse to the elephant. Because of the macroscopic and morphological orientation of his research Hyrtl satisfied himself with corrosion specimens of the labyrinth and left the histological elucidation of the terminal auditory apparatus in the cochlea to his student Alfonso Corti.

By 1813 Hyrtl had moved to Vienna from Eisenstadt, where his father had been oboist in the orchestra of Nicholas, Prince Esterházy. He became a choirboy in the palace chapel and thus a student at the state boarding school. After completing his secondary education he studied medicine in Vienna. He was encouraged by the anatomist Joseph Berres, becoming the latter’s prosector in the summer of 1833. In 1835 he earned his doctorate with a dissertation in the history of medicine entitled Antiquitates anatomicae rariores, in which, already, he stressed the necessity of giving anatomical instruction a clinical orientation and considered physiological experiments on animals to be unproductive.

In May 1837 Hyrtl was summoned to Prague as professor of anatomy. He returned to Vienna in 1845 to occupy the chair left vacant by the death of Berres. With great diligence he enlarged the demonstration collections, published numerous special investigations, and, in addition to his regular lectures, gave courses in applied anatomy for physicians.

Hyrtl became increasingly isolated in Vienna. His ambition and irascibility made him an extremely difficult colleague and finally cut him off from any close professional ties. Most of all, the physiologist Ernst Brücke became conscious of Hyrtl’s haughty manner and contempt for physiological experimentation. It is indicative of Hyrtl’s position in the Viennese medical faculty that in the thirty years of his membership, he was never elected dean. He was, however, elected rector for the academic year 1864-1865, during which the university’s five-hundredth anniversary celebration took place. Although ambitious enough to accept, Hyrtl was soon confronted with the many difficulties resulting from the domestic political situation. Consequent embitterment may have contributed to Hyrtl’s decision to retire in 1874, while still in full possession of his intellectual and physical powers. He settled in Perchtoldsdorf, where he spent the next twenty years working on publications on the history of anatomical nomenclature that are still of value, such as Onomatologia anatomica (1880). He founded an orphanage in Mödling and, since he was childless, made this institution the sole heir to the fortune he had earned from his textbooks and anatomical preparations.

Hyrtl was the most scintillating anatomy teacher of the nineteenth century. His expressive voice could impart surging pathos, solemn dignity, lucid objectivity, nonchalant malice, or cutting asperity as the occasion demanded. Along with Brücke’s lectures, his were the best attended at the faculty of medicine.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works A complete bibliography can be found in M. Holl, “Joseph Hyrtl,” in Wiener klinische Wochenschrift, 7 (1894), 557-559, repr. in Franz Wolf and Gottfried Roth, Professor Josef Hyrtl (Vienna, 1962), pp. 138-147. His works include Antiquitates anatomicae reriores (Vienna, 1835); Lehrbuch der Anatomie des Menschenmit Rücksicht auf physiologische Begründung und praktische Anwendung (Prague, 1846; 20th ed., Vienna, 1889); Handbuch der topographischen Anatomie und ihrer praktisch medizinisch-chirurgischen Anwendungen, 2 vols. (Vienna, 1847; 7th ed., Vienna, 1882); Das Arabische unde Hebräische in der Anatomie (Vienna, 1879); and Onomatologia anatomica. Geschichte und Kritik der anatomischen Sprache der Gegenwart (Vienna, 1880; repr. Hildesheim, 1970).

II. Secondary Literature. See Erna Lesky, Die Wiener medizinische Schule im 19. Jahrhundert (Graz-Cologne, 1965), pp. 240-251, with bibliography; W. S. Miller, “Joseph Hyrtl, Anatomist,” in Bulletin of the Society of Medical History of Chicago, 3 (1923), 96-108; Viktor Patzelt, “Joesph Hytrl. Sein Werk nach 100 Jahren,” in Anatomischer Anzeiger, 103 (1956), 160-175, with bibliography; and Johannes Steudel, “Joseph Hyrtl,” in Medizinische Welt, 18 (1944), 462-465. The Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General’s Office, 2nd ser. 7 , 772, refers to numerous obituaries.

J. Steudel