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Max von Pettenkofer (1818–1901) as a pioneer of modern hygiene and preventive medicine

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Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine Aims and scope

Abstract

Max von Pettenkofer (1818–1901) belonged to the scientific elite of the 19th century. With his stringent search for the laws of nature and his fight for scientific truth, Pettenkofer was the prototype of a modern researcher. In the field of hygiene, he sought ways and means of preserving health and preventing sickness. With his consistent application of the experimental method to the field of public health, Pettenkofer helped the discipline of hygiene to provide precise and reliable answers to sanitary questions. In his experimental work on hygiene, Pettenkofer sought an answer to every imaginable question concerning the connection between the human organism and its environment.

To proceed in this direction, Pettenkofer combined medical expertise with physics, chemistry, technique and statistics. This even today modern “crossover-thinking” made hygiene to the first interdisciplinary medical field. With his Institute of Hygiene, Pettenkofer established 1879 the first centre of competence for hygiene and environment in the world, opening a new era of environmental observation.

In the framework of hygiene, Pettenkofer turned also to questions of nutrition and the quality of foodstuff. The science of hygiene owes to Max von Pettenkofer not only its development and cartography, but also its introduction as an academic discipline. Finally he regarded hygiene also as an economic and cultural feature. His idea about a clean soil in the cities and his promotion of adequate water supply and sufficient sewage networks are linked to his theory of the cholera. Pettenkofer believed that a battle against this epidemic could be won.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Geschichte der Medizin der Ludwig-Maximilians, Universität München, Lessingstr. 2, D-80336, München, Germany

    Wolfgang Gerhard Locher

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  1. Wolfgang Gerhard Locher
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Correspondence to Wolfgang Gerhard Locher.

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In this respect we have to mention for example J. Forster in Amsterdam and later in Strassburg, Fr. Hofmann in Leipzig, K.B. Lehmann in Würzburg, Wolffhügel in Göttingen and M. Rubner in Marburg and Berlin. In foreign countries we have to refer to Isidor Soyka (Prague) or von Fodor (Budapest). Bubnoff (Moskow) and Subottin (Kiew). In Japan, Ogata, Tsuboi and Nakahama were responsible for spreading Max von Pettenkofer’s ideas and became members of the University of Tokyo.

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Locher, W.G. Max von Pettenkofer (1818–1901) as a pioneer of modern hygiene and preventive medicine. Environ Health Prev Med 12, 238–245 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02898030

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