SCHIFF, MORITZ

(b. Frankfurt, Germany, 28 January 1823; d. Geneva, Switzerland, 6 October 1896)

Zoology physiology.

Schiff was one of the eminent biologists who pioneered the experimental method in the new science of physiology. Following in the steps of his teacher Magendie, he approached the subject matter from a biological point of view instead of carrying out reductionist physicochemical studies like those of du Bois’Reymond and Helmholtz. Schiff’s often controversial vivisections uncovered details in spinal cord physiology, clarified the role of the autonomic nervous system, and revealed the importance of certain internal secretions.

Schiff was descended from a family of Jewish merchants. His interest in the natural sciences emerged in early childhood, during which he established in his attic a veritable museum of small animals. Following the family tradition, Schiff was sent to study the textile business, but his utter incompetence convinced his father that his talents lay elsewhere.

Thus, in the late 1830’s Schiff began to study the natural sciences at the Senckenberg Institute, transferring to Heidelberg in 1840 in order to pursue a career in medicine. After some anatomical work with Friedrich Tiedemann, Schiff moved to Berlin, where he studied morphology with Johannes Müller. Finally, in 1843, he went to Göttingen as a student of Rudolf Wagner and received his medical degree there a year later.

After his graduation Schiff traveled to Paris in order to conduct zoological research at the museum of the Jardin des Plantes. He also visited local hospitals and studied experimental techniques with magendie and served briefly as a research assistant to both Francois Longet and Carlo Matteucci, who were studying physiology of the nervous system.

In 1845 Schiff returned to Frankfurt to practice medicine. Instead of seeing many patients, he spent most of his time in a small homemade laboratory, where he conducted physiological experiments. In 1846 he was appointed a member of the ornithology section of the Senckenberg Museum, where he cataloged South American birds.

Schiff’s early research dealt with cardiac contraction and its possible relation to nerve’mediated action. By 1849 he had concluded that the diastole was a reflection of nervous exhaustion. Following studies on digestion and the influence of neural centers on bodily heat, Schiff received the Montyon Prize of the French Academy in 1854 for his work on bone physiology.

A year later Schiff decided to begin his academic career at Göttingen, but his petition to become Privatdozent in zoology was rejected by the university authorities without explanation. The true reasons for the decision were Schiff’s Jewish ancestry and his past membership in the revolutionary medical corps during the 1848 uprising in Baden. Undaunted, Schiff accepted an appointment in 1856 as assistant professor of comparative anatomy and zoology at the University of Bern. In 1859, after rejecting an offer to teach physiology at Jena, he was appointed professor of physiology at the Istituto di Studii Superiori of the University of Florence in 1862. During the ensuing years, the most productive of his scientific career, he studied most the pathways of pain and touch in the spinal cord.

In 1874 Schiff made a comparative study of the two anesthetic agents then in vogue, chloroform and ether. He succeeded in proving the toxicity of the former and branded its use dangerous. A systematic campaign aimed at his vivisection experiments forced Schiff to leave Florence in 1876, and he returned to Switzerland to assume the chair of physiology at the University of Geneva. Before his death from diabetes, Schiff studied primarily the functions of the thyroid, establishing the foundations for the surgical removal of goiters. He was a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Rome and Paris Academy of Medicine, and a coeditor of the Schweizerishe Zeitschift f̣ür Heilkunde.

Schiff pioneered research on the vasomotor functions of the autonomic nervous system and especially the innervation of the heart. He also studied thyroid function, artificially inducing myxedema through the surgical removal of the gland and reversing that condition through thyroid transplants in dogs. Schiff wrote on the formation of glycogen in the liver in experimentally induced diabetes, using Claude Bernard’s puncture of the fourth ventricle in the brain.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Schiff’s collected papers in German and French were published as Moritz Schiff’s gesammelte Beiträge zur Physiologie, 4 vols. (Lausanne, 1894–1898). In vol. 1 Schiff himself rearranged some of his articles on the centers in the nervous system that are related to respiration. The papers are arranged by topic and then presented chronologically. Vol. IV was edited by Alexandre Herzen and Émile Levier.

Schiff’s earlier books include Untersuchungen zur Physiologie des Nervensystems mit Berücksichtigung der Pathologie (Frankfurt, 1855); and Untersuchungen über die Zuckerbildung in der Leber, und den Einfluss des Nervensystems auf die Erzeugung der Diabetes (Würzburg, 1859). He began a textbook of physiology, completing the first volume on muscle physiology and neurophysiology: Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen (Lahr, 1858–1859).

Several of his Italian lectures were translated into French by R. Guichard de Choisity asContribution a la physiologie: de I’inflammation et de la circulation (Paris, 1873), Two works written in Italian are Lezioni di fisiologia sperimentale sul sistema nervoso encefalico, compiled by P. Marchi (Florence, 1865); and La pupilla come estesiometro (Florence, 1875).

II. Secondary Literature. Among the short biographical sketches of Schiff is an obituary note by Arthur Biedl in Wiener klinische Wochenschrift, 9 , no. 44 (1896), 1008–1010; the article by J.R. Ewald in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, LIV, 8–11; and the entry in August Hirsch, ed., Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Arzter, 2nd ed., V, 72–73. More recent is P.Riedo, “Der Physiologe Moritz Schiff (1823–1896) und die Innervation des Herzens”, Zürcher medizingeschichtlche Achandlungen,n.s. no. 85 (1970).

Schiff’s formal application for an academic position at the University of Göttingen has been published together with some biographical details by H. Friedenwald, “Notes on Moritz Schiff (1823–1896)”, in Bulletin of the Institute of the History of medicine, 5 (1937), 589–602; the document furnishes a chronological account of Schiff’s editorial containing some paragraphs of Schiff’s articles in English translation is “Moritz Schiff (1823–1896), Experimental Physiologist”, in Journal of the American Medical Association, 203 (1968), 1133–1134.

Guenter B. Risse