Van Swieten’s Contributions to Medical Literature.—In addition to his famous “Commentaries” van Swieten wrote only one other treatise to which it seems desirable to call the reader’s attention. I refer to the book that bears the title “Constitutiones Epidemicae” and that was first published by Stoll after the author’s death. According to the statement of Mueller “this work is a sort of ‘Physician’s Day-Book,’ covering the period 1727–1744, and reveals the fact that van Swieten was a very close observer of the different diseases that came under his notice.... It constitutes a valuable supplement to the history of Boerhaave’s therapeutic methods.”
Finally, it should be stated, on the authority of Hecker, that van Swieten wrote a small manual for the use of military surgeons. It was published by Johann Thomas Trattnern, Court Printer and Bookseller, Vienna, Prague and Trieste, 1758. Van Swieten’s name—says Hecker—does not appear anywhere in the volume; and, furthermore, serious doubts have been expressed as to the correctness of the claim that van Swieten is the author of this little manual.
After van Swieten’s death in 1772, the bust of this distinguished physician, which already three years earlier the sculptor F. X. Messerschmied had been commissioned by the Empress to prepare, was set up in the auditorium of the Medical School; and in addition an elaborate monument in his honor was erected in the Hofkirche, the Royal Chapel.
CHAPTER IX
ANTON STOERCK, VAN SWIETEN’S SUCCESSOR, AND THE PROGRESS OF MEDICAL AFFAIRS AT VIENNA UNDER THE MANAGEMENT OF JOSEPH II.
After the death of Maria Theresa, in 1780, her son Joseph, who had previously been associated with his mother in the government of the empire, became the Emperor in the full sense of that term. Fortunately for the best interests of the science and art of medicine he had long been familiar, and fully in sympathy, with the plans and purposes of Maria Theresa; and he was therefore quite ready to advance the good work which she had begun. One of his first acts was to remove every possible disability from those officers and instructors who were non-Catholics, thus enabling them to gain all the facilities and honors which their Catholic associates had up to that time enjoyed. In their ultimate effect upon the growth and prosperity of the university these special measures undoubtedly were advantageous, but they were carried out with too great rapidity. According to Puschmann the Emperor strove to accomplish in a comparatively short period of time what required not less than a century. His efforts met with strong opposition in certain quarters, and before his death in 1790 he had the disheartening experience of witnessing the upsetting of many of his cherished plans. After his death, however, he received full credit for what he had attempted; the Viennese speaking of him as “the friend of the poor and the miserable, the upholder of justice and the champion of spiritual freedom and of education.”
Anton Stoerck and the Manner of Teaching Medicine in the University of Vienna.—Anton Stoerck, van Swieten’s successor, was the first to enjoy in large measure the fruits of the latter’s reformation of medical teaching in Vienna. His elder brother, Melchior, had already before this date been appointed Professor of Theoretical Medicine in the University; and then, in 1760, Anton himself was elevated to the important position of Court Physician. He gained his chief distinction, however, through his enthusiastic cultivation of experimental pharmacology. In this field, which had previously received very little attention, he was probably the first to appreciate the fact that the gap between theoretical medicine and actual practice could be bridged only by a resort to experimentation. Among the drugs which he tested in this manner were the following: datura stramonium, hyoscyamus niger L., clematis erecta and pulsatilla nigricans L. Van Swieten, so long as his state of health permitted, encouraged Anton to go on with his experimental work; de Haen, on the other hand, was rather skeptical about the success of his efforts.