Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
WAGNER, RUDOLPH (1805-1864)
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: VIR-WAT
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:WAGNER, See also:RUDOLPH (1805-1864) , See also:German anatomist and physiologist, was See also:born on the 3oth of See also:June 1805 at See also:Bayreuth, where his See also:father was a See also:professor in the gymnasium. He began the study of See also:medicine at See also:Erlangen in 1822, and finished his curriculum in 1826 at See also:Wurzburg, where he had attached himself mostly to J. L. Schonlein in medicine and to K. F. Heusinger in See also:comparative See also:anatomy. Aided by a public stipendium, he spent a See also:year or more studying in the Jardin See also:des Plantes, under the friendly See also:eye of See also:Cuvier, and in making zoological discoveries at Cagliari and other places on the Mediterranean. On his return he set up in medical practice at See also:Augsburg, whither his father had been transferred; but in a few months he found an opening for an academical career, on being appointed prosector at Erlangen. In 1832 he became full professor of See also:zoology and comparative anatomy there, and held that See also:office until 1840, when he was called to succeed J. F. See also:Blumenbach at See also:Gottingen. At the Hanoverian university he remained till his See also:death, being much occupied with administrative See also:work as See also:pro-See also:rector for a number of years, and for nearly the whole of his See also:residence troubled by See also:ill-See also:health (See also:phthisis). In 186o he gave over the physiological See also:part of his teaching to a new See also:chair, retaining the zoological, with which his career had begun. While at Frankfurt, on his way to examine the See also:Neanderthal See also:skull at See also:Bonn, he was struck with See also:paralysis, and died at Gottingen a few months later on the 13th of May 1864. Wagner's activity as a writer and worker was enormous, and his range extensive, most of his hard work having been done at Erlangen while his health was See also:good. His See also:graduation thesis was on the Progress of the working• classes. ambitious subject of " the See also:historical development of epidemic and contagious diseases all over the See also:world, with the See also:laws of their See also:diffusion," which showed the See also:influence of Schonlein. His first See also:treatise was See also:Die Naturgeschichte des Menschen (in 2 vols., See also:Kempten, 1831). Frequent journeys to the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and the See also:North See also:Sea gave him abundant materials for See also:research on invertebrate anatomy and See also:physiology, which he communicated first to the See also:Munich See also:academy of sciences, and republished in his Beitrage zur vergleichenden Physiologie des Elutes (See also:Leipzig, 1832–1833), with additions in 1838). In 1834–1835 he brought out a See also:text-See also:book on the subject of his chair (Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Anatomie, Leipzig), which recommended itself to students by its clear and concise See also:style. A new edition of it appeared in 1843 under the See also:title of Lehrbuch der Zootontie, of which only the vertebrate See also:section was corrected by himself. The precision of his earlier work is evidenced by his Micrometric Measurements of the Elementary Parts of See also:Man and Animals (Leipzig, 1834). His zoological labours may be said to conclude with the See also:atlas lcones zootomicae (Leipzig, 1841). In 1835 he communicated to the Munich academy of sciences his researches on the physiology of See also:generation and development, including the famous See also:discovery of the germinal vesicle of the human ovum. These were republished under the title Prodromus historiae generationis hominis atque animalium (Leipzig, 1836). As in zoology, his See also:original researches in physiology were followed by a students' text-book, Lehrbuch der speciellen Physiologie (Leipzig, 1838), which soon reached a third edition, and was translated into See also:French and See also:English. This was supplemented by an atlas, Icones physiologicae (Leipzig, 1839). To the same See also:period belongs a very interesting but now little known work on medicine proper, of a historical and synthetic See also:scope, Grundriss der Encyklopadie and M,thodologie der medicinischen Wissenschaften nach geschichtlicher Ansicht (Erlangen, 1838), which was translated into Danish. About the same See also:time he worked at a See also:translation of J. C. See also:Prichard's Natural See also:History of Man, and edited various writings of S. T. Sommerring, with a See also:biography of that anatomist (1844), which he himself fancied most of all his writings. In 1843, after his removal to Gottingen, he began his See also:great Handworterbuch der Physiologie, mit Riicksicht au physiologische Pathologie, and brought out the fifth (supplementary See also:volume in 1852 ; the only contributions of his own in it were on the sympathetic See also:nerve, nerve-ganglia and nerve-endings, and he modestly disclaimed all merit except as being the organizer. While See also:resident in See also:Italy for his health from 1845 to 1847, he occupied himself with researches on the See also:electrical See also:organ of the See also:torpedo and on See also:nervous organization generally; these he published in 1853–1854 (Neurologische Untersuchungen, Gottingen), and therewith his physiological period may be said to end. His next period was stormy and controversial. He entered the lists boldly against the See also:materialism of " Stoff and Kraft," and avowed himself a See also:Christian believer, where-upon he lost the countenance of a number of his old See also:friends and pupils, and was unfeelingly told that he was suffering from an See also:atrophy of the See also:brain." His See also:quarrel with the materialists began with his oration at the Gottingen See also:meeting of the Naturforscher-Versammlung in 1854, on "Menschenschopf ung and Seelensubstanz." This was followed by a See also:series of " Physiological Letters " in the Allgemeine Zeitung, by an See also:essay on " Glauben and Wissen," and by the most important piece of this series, " Der Kampf See also:urn die Seele by (Gottingen, 1857). Having come to the See also:consideration of these philosophical problems See also:late in See also:life, he was at some disadvantage; but he endeavoured to join as he best could in the current of See also:con-temporary German thought. He had an exact knowledge of classical German writings, more especially of See also:Goethe's, and of the literature connected with him. In what may be called his See also:fourth and last period, Wagner became anthropologist and archaeologist, occupied himself with the See also:cabinet of skulls in the Gottingen museum collected by Blumenbach and with the excavation of prehistoric remains, corresponded actively with the anthropological See also:societies of See also:Paris and See also:London, and organized, in co-operation with the See also:veteran K. E. von See also:Baer, a successful See also:congress of anthropologists at Gottingen in 1861. His last writings were See also:memoirs on the convolutions ofthe human brain, on the See also:weight of brains, and on the brains of idiots (186o-1862). See memoir by his eldest son in the Gottinger gelehrte Anzeigen, Nachrichten " for 1864. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] WAGNER, ADOLF (1835- ) |
[next] WAGNER, WILHELM RICHARD (1813-1883) |