HUFELAND
(From Eugen Hollaender’s “Medizin und Plastik,” by permission.)
Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, who was born in 1762, at Langensalza, in the district of Thuringia, Central Germany, founded, about the year 1795, a medical journal that bore the title, “Hufeland’s Journal der Practischen Heilkunde,”—the first German medical journal that was devoted largely to matters of interest to the practitioner. It was published regularly every month and was in almost every respect similar to the best medical journals of the present day. It was kept in active circulation up to the time of the founder’s death in 1836, and was highly appreciated by physicians generally. Hufeland’s reputation, however, rested less upon this journal, notwithstanding its great popularity, than it did upon his famous treatise entitled “The Art of Prolonging Life” (Makrobiotik). This book, which has been translated into every modern language, and which during the past century and a half has never had a rival in the field of which it treats, continues to-day to furnish entertaining reading to hundreds of men and women, laymen as well as physicians, who desire to learn the well-established facts regarding human longevity. Farther on, I will furnish a few extracts from both of these publications, thus enabling those of my readers who have not yet had an opportunity to become acquainted with Hufeland’s writings or with his work as a journalist, to learn something more definite about the man.
So far as I am able to ascertain, Hufeland’s only other important activities were those connected with the positions which he held in the Universities of Jena (1793–1798) and Berlin (1798–1835). In the former institution, he held the Chair of Medicine; in the latter he held the same chair, but he was also acknowledged to be the guiding spirit in all matters relating to the organization and management of that important centre of medical education.
Among the items of special interest in Hufeland’s “Makrobiotik,” I find the following:—
On the 2nd of August, 1790, a carabinier named Petit jumped into the Rhine from one of the windows of the Military Hospital at Strassburg. Half an hour later,—as nearly as could be learned from an inquiry that was made at the time of the occurrence,—his body was taken from the water and carried into the hospital. To all appearances the man was dead; no evidences of life were discovered. Nevertheless, efforts were made to revive him. The body was placed in a thoroughly warmed bed, with the head lying high up on a pillow, the arms resting on the trunk, and the legs extended side by side. The only other measures adopted were the following: At short but regular intervals of time heated cloths were placed over the region of the stomach and over the legs; and heated stones wrapped in cloths were placed in different parts of the bed. At the end of seven or eight minutes a slight twitching of the man’s upper eyelids was observed, and a short time afterward his lower jaw, which up to that moment had been in firm contact with the upper jaw, became separated from it and permitted a little frothy mucus to escape between the lips. After this discovery had been made, a little wine was cautiously introduced into the man’s mouth. Apparently it was swallowed, and then other small doses of wine were administered, all of them apparently being swallowed. Under this stimulation the pulse beats at the wrist became perceptible, and at the end of one hour the man was able to answer questions.
In his comments upon this interesting case of restoration of life after apparent death from drowning, Hufeland makes the following remarks:—
It is evident, therefore, that artificial heat acts with the same vigor immediately after the appearance of what seems to be death as it does at the very first dawn of life; it gradually fans into a living flame the few vital sparks which may still be present in the body.
In the preceding account of the means adopted for resuscitating the soldier who was believed to be dead from the effects of drowning, no mention is made of friction of the surface of the body as a procedure of some value. Hufeland, very properly, lays great stress upon the need of applying heat. Friction, however, if employed intelligently, may prove a most efficient adjunct; and, when I use the expression “intelligently,” I mean that friction may be utilized as a powerful agent for propelling toward the heart the artificially heated blood contained in the cutaneous blood-vessels, thus contributing in no small degree toward the reëstablishment of the circulation. The kind of friction required—it seems scarcely necessary to say—should always be directed from the extremities toward the heart.
In another part of the same work Hufeland gives an account of several instances of exceptional longevity. One of these relates to Terentia, the wife of Cicero, who, despite the sore trials to which she was subjected, and despite the occasional attacks of gout with which she was afflicted, attained the great age of 103. A second instance is that of Livia, the wife of the Emperor Augustus, a woman who possessed a domineering and passionate character, but who, nevertheless, was blessed with a full share of happiness. At the time of her death she was ninety years old. Two other Roman women are mentioned by Hufeland as having attained a great age. They were both of them distinguished actresses. The first one, whose name was Luceia, began her theatrical career at a very early age and was 112 years old on the occasion of her last appearance on the stage; her entire theatrical career having covered a period of one hundred years. Galeria Copiala is the name of the other actress, who was at the same time famous as a danseuse. Ninety years after her first appearance on the stage she took part in a complimentary performance in honor of Pompey; and even at a still later date she acted in a play which was intended to celebrate the distinguished reign of the Emperor Augustus.