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Public Anatomies in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

  • Original Paper
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Medicine Studies

Abstract

Anatomical exhibitions, online atlases and televised dissections have recently attracted much attention and raised questions concerning the status of and the authority over the human body, the purpose of anatomical education within and outside medical schools and the methods of teaching in the digital age. I propose that for understanding the current public views of anatomy, we need to gain insight into their historical development. This article focuses on anatomies accessible to non-medical audiences in the capital of the Habsburg Empire, Vienna, at the time when the city was the seat of a world-leading medical school. Anatomy at the University of Vienna was famous for its research, instruction and the abundant provision with dissectible corpses. Public anatomies were equally rich and ranged from exhibitions at the Präuscher’s Panoptikon und Anatomisches Museum, established in 1871 in the Prater amusement park, lectures on human and comparative anatomy by the university professor Carl Bernhard Brühl (1863–1890), to displays of anatomical objects at the World Exhibition in 1873. I finish by discussing a collection of letters written by the prospective ‘cadaver donors’, offering an insight into the ways in which medical encounters and anatomical knowledge informed the working-class views of their bodies. By looking at the kinds of anatomy in circulation, as well as at the participants in these exchanges, I want to illuminate the relationship between academic and public anatomies, as well as to reveal the purposes to which public anatomy served.

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Notes

  1. See for instance the classical account on the rise of Paris hospital in Ackerknecht (1967).

  2. See for instance Reverby and Rosner (2004).

  3. The most comprehensive, if dated, account of the history of Vienna School of Medicine remains Lesky (1965).

  4. See for example Semon (1926: 63).

  5. An exception is Pawlowsky (2001).

  6. For the content and general historical information on the collection, see Allmer and Jantsch (1965); for good-quality photographs of the models, see Skopec and Gröger (2002). For an illuminating insight into the reception of the Josephinum models (and the Josephinum more generally) around 1800, see Maerker (2005).

  7. Terms for science for non-professional audiences have been much discussed. The widely used term ‘popular’ (‘popular science’, ‘popular anatomy’) also carries negative connotations, so scholars have occasionally opted for ‘vernacular’ (and contrasted ‘vernacular’ with ‘professional’ sphere of discourse) and ‘commercial’: see more in Lightman (2007: 7–0). I prefer the term ‘public anatomy’ because it is more inclusive: rather than distinguishing ‘professional’ from ‘lay’ anatomy, it focuses on their intersection, spaces where different social groups met and kinds of anatomy practiced and displayed in public spaces.

  8. On the ‘seven fat years’ of economic growth in the Habsburg Empire, between the end of the wars with Italy and Prussia in 1866 and the stock market crash in the summer of 1873, see Rumpler (1997: 459–463).

  9. Most of my discussion of anatomical objects at the 1873 exhibition is based on a long two-instalment article (Dr Eisenschitz 1873).

  10. See Knispel (1997: 105–106, 110–111). For Brunetti’s biography, see Premuda (1985).

  11. The details were discussed in Anonymous (1867a).

  12. Spalteholz’ method consisted of embedding body parts in a mixture of etheric oils that had an index of refraction similar to human tissue, thus making the object transparent (Hahn 1999). The method developed by Gunther von Hagens in the 1970s is based on the same optical principle but uses artificial polymers. In contrast to Spateholz, the mixture does not just enclose the body part but permeates it to replace body tissues and fats with incorruptible polymers. See Von Hagens and Whalley (2001) and Jones (2002).

  13. The shopping catalogue aspect should be emphasized. Sultan Abdul Medjid paid handsomely for a collection of circulation preparations for the Galata Palace medical school in Istanbul (Anonymous 1894). The collection of East- and Central European skulls, exhibited separately in the Rotunde pavilion, was sold immediately after the exhibition to the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia (Benedikt 1906: 60).

  14. Teichmann exhibited in the Austrian Academy of Sciences section. Josef Lenhóssek was in the Hungarian pavilion. (Anonymous 1873a: 153, 221).

  15. For more on Hyrtl, see Mitterwenger-Fessl (1991).

  16. ‘Revolutionäre’, ‘Communiste’, ‘Bigamiste’, ‘Blutschänder’, ‘Königsmörder’ and ‘Vertreter der Thätigkeit der Guillotine’ (Anonymous 1864a).

  17. But Janik warns that we can also find the echoes of this tradition in the work of people on the opposite side of the political spectrum, such as Karl Kraus. See Janik (2001: 8–9).

  18. Sammlungen der Medizinischen Universität, Handschriften Sammlung, Ernst von Feuchtersleben Mappe, Sig. 1650. Corti had already gained reputation for his skilled preparation of comparative anatomical specimens. Brühl withdrew his application even before the oral and practical examination (the latter consisted of corpse dissection and specimen preparation) so Corti, obviously a stronger candidate, won the position uncontested.

  19. Österreiches Staatsarchiv (ÖStA), Allgemeines Verwaltungsarchiv (AVA), Unterricht: Allgemeine Reihe (1848–1914), Universität Wien, Sig. 4, Philosophische Fakultät, Professoren, Fasz. 634, Z. 14.966 (1890).

  20. ÖStA, AVA, Unterricht: Allgemeine Reihe (1848–1914), Universität Wien, Sig. 4, Philosophische Fakultät, Zootomie, Fasz. 630, Z. 4184/226 (1861).

  21. ÖStA, AVA, Unterricht: Allgemeine Reihe (1848–1914), Universität Wien, Sig. 4, Philosophische Fakultät, Zootomie, Fasz. 630, Z. 4184/226 (1861). The appointment was partly owed to the policy of protecting German professors expelled from non-German-speaking universities. Two other Budapest émigrés were appointed to posts in Vienna and Salzburg.

  22. On Brühl and the movement for education of women, see Anonymous (1890a).

  23. Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift published the transcripts of the introductory lectures for the seasons of 1865/6 and 1867/8. See Anonymous (1865a, b; 1866a).

  24. Animals for Brühl’s collection came from various sources: Schönbrunn Zoo, the Imperial and Royal Animal Hospital, Brühl’s own collection and the comparative anatomy museum that Hyrtl had built for decades. Hyrtl was very much against giving part of his collections to Brühl, and their row over the collections attracted much media interest; the Zeitschrift für praktischen Heilkunden speculated that a ministerial counsellor had to retire because of his support for Hyrtl and implied that Brühl had a powerful protector. Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift disagreed. Hyrtl threatened to leave Vienna for a professorship in Bern, but WMW concluded that this was an empty threat and that he would never exchange the university where he had 300 students for a small one with not more than 20 (Anonymous 1863a: 283–284).

  25. Anonymous (1864b): ‘20 military officers, 2 paper-mill workers; 2 carpenters, 1 jeweller, 3 history painters, 18 civil servants, 1 bookbinder, 4 technicians (engineers), 1 typesetter, 5 gymnasium students, 10 clerks, 2 haberdashers, 15 with private incomes, 3 sculptors, 7 mechanics, 1 rope-maker, 4 weavers, 1 brazier, 6 trade-school graduates, 5 foremen, 1 gold-beater, 2 engravers, 1 glover, 1 doctor, 1 architect, 1 mirror-manufacturer, 1 mason, 3 salesmen, 1 house cleaner, 1 architectural draughtsman, 1 carpenter, 1 shoemaker, 5 book-keepers and about 25–30 women’.

  26. Anonymous (1865c): ‘Among the 440 attendees were 130 women and 310 gentlemen; among the latter, 80 professions were represented. Members of the working class composed almost half [of the audience]: 6 tailors, 7 shoemakers, 8 weavers, 9 bookbinders, 5 watchmakers, 8 haberdashers; the majority with their wives. There were about 60 civil servants of all ranks, from ministerial counsellors to day-workers’.

  27. On Bischoff and Rüdinger, see Bonner (1992: 11, 105). According to Brühl (1892: 4), Brühl published several papers on this topic: ‘Einiges über das Gehirn der Wirbelthiere mit besonderer Berücksichtigung jenes der Frau, mit den Gehirnbau erläuternden Figuren’ in the publication of the Verein zur Verbreitung naturwissenschaftlicher Kenntnisse in Wien (1878) and ‘Frauenhirn, Frauenseele, Frauenrecht’ in a Leipzig monthly Auf der Höhe, in 1883.

  28. Following Anonymous (1890c), Das Vaterland published a series of related articles: 1 April 1890, 6; 5 April 1890; 6 April 1890, 1; 10 April 1890, 2; 11 April 1890, 2; 12 April 1890, 1; 13 April 1890, 2.

  29. See Goldman (1932). I am grateful to Dr Elizabeth Malleier for this reference.

  30. The lists of courses are kept in the Österreichisches Volkshochschularchiv, and they contain the information about the lecturer, the title, the organizer and the place of the courses. While Urania and Volkstümliche Universitätsvorträge offered broad programmes of popular interest (for instance, at Urania, Karl Toldt lectured on ‘Racial and cultural issues of the humanity: Introduction into anthropology’, and Tandler on the ‘Representation of death in the art’), most of the Volkshochschulbewegung courses were more technical and detailed, devoting weeks to specific organs and parts of the body. Some of the lectures were then published in the Volkshochschulbewegung’s publication, ‘The knowledge for all’ (Das Wissen für Alle). I am grateful to Dr Christian Stifter for his generous help with my research in the Volkshochschularchiv.

  31. All letters are kept in the Handschriftensammlung, Sammlungen der Medizinischen Universität Wien.

  32. Schwarzach im Pongau in Salzburg province and Neukirchen am Walde in Upper Austria.

  33. The wax collection was open to public every Saturday from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. ‘without prior notice’: the medical guidebook through Vienna described it as ‘having only a historical value and not suitable for study’ (Anonymous 1863c: 71).

  34. See Dr. B. An der Feuerwerksallee. Neues Wiener Tagblatt 29 April 1872, quoted in Pemmer and Lackner (1935: 188–190).

  35. Anatomical institute files reveal that institute attendants conducted a lively trade in dry specimens (bones), as well as wet specimens. See for instance ÖStA, AVA, Unterricht: Allgemeine Reihe (1848–1914), Universität Wien, Anatomisches Institut, Sig. 4G, Fasz. 808, No. 22.204 (1885).

  36. Armenarzt was a physician paid by the local authority (a district or a municipality) to treat the poor free of charge.

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Acknowledgments

Parts of this essay are based on my Ph. D. dissertation “Dissection, discipline and urban transformation: anatomy at the University of Vienna, 1845–1914” (University of Cambridge, 2005). For comments on versions of this essay, I am grateful to Nick Hopwood, Lynn Nyhart and Anna Maerker, as well as the participants of the 2003 ISHPSSB meeting at which an early draft was presented. Two experts on science communication and education in the past and present Vienna, Oliver Hochadel and Klaus Taschwer, provided inspiration and assistance at various stages of the project, in particular with regard to the career of Carl Bernhard Brühl. I am indebted to the institutions who allowed access to their holdings: Vienna University Archives, Collections of the Medical University of Vienna, Technical Museum in Vienna and Adult Education Archives in Vienna. All translations from German are mine unless stated otherwise.

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    Tatjana Buklijas

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Buklijas, T. Public Anatomies in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna. Medicine Studies 2, 71–92 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12376-010-0046-0

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