User:Cbye/Johannes von Muralt (Doctor)

Johannes von Muralt (also: Johann de Muralto; 18 February 1645, Zurich - 12 January 1733) was a Swiss anatomist and surgeon.

Family
Muralt was the scion of the von Muralt noble family, originally from Locarno, who, after converting to the Protestant faith, found a new home in Bern and Zurich in 1555 and became part of the wealthy bourgeoisie. He was the son of the merchant Johann Melchior Muralt (1614-1688), who had married Regula Escher in 1672. Muralt's son Johann Conrad (1673–1732) was the City Physician (Stadtarzt) of Zurich.

Study and Profession
Muralt first attended the Carolinum Gymnasium in Zurich and at the age of 20 published his first scientific work on the intellectual life of the deaf and mute (Schola mutorum ac surdorum). During academic trips he studied anatomy, surgery and obstetrics in Basel, Leiden, London, Oxford, Paris and Montpellier. His teachers included the well-known anatomist Gaspard Bauhin (Basel) and the physician Franciscus Sylvius (Leiden). Muralt completed his academic training in Basel with his dissertation De morbis parturientium et accidentibus, quae partum insequuntur (the diseases of women in labor and the accidents that follow birth) and set up his own practice in Zurich as a surgeon and obstetrician.

Muralt's surgical activities and public dissections of animals in Zurich soon led to disagreements with the Surgeons' Guild Zum Schwarzen Garten. After five years, his reputation as a doctor was so solid that Muralt was allowed to perform dissections on corpses (executed prisoners), he was admitted to the Academia Caesario-Leopoldina Naturae Curiosorum under the name "Aretaeus" and made an honorary member of the surgeons' guild.

From 1686, Muralt gave anatomical lectures in German to surgeons, students and educated laypeople, on the subjects of anatomy, physiology, organ pathology, medical and surgical therapy, the use of medicinal plants and instructions for military surgeons.

Achievements
Muralt can be considered the founder of anatomical teaching in Zurich. In 1688 he was appointed city doctor (Archiator) and was responsible for disease control, midwifery, pharmacies and the city hospital. Muralt performed all fracture, lithotomy and cataract operations himself. In 1691 he received a professorship in physics at the Chorherrnstift Grossemünster and a professorship at the Gymnasium. The Leopoldina made him a member in 1681. Muralt's work made Zurich an important center for the study of anatomy and surgery.

Muralt's success was mainly due to his extraordinary practical surgical skills. 21 works dealt with anatomy, medicine and physiology, 13 works with mineralogy, zoology and botany, and 100 essays were devoted to animal anatomy.

His major natural history work is the Systema physicae experimentalis, integram naturam illustrans (1705–1714). A handwritten regional pharmacopoeia by Muralt survives. Muralt hypothesized that the contagious agent of plague could be "animal" in nature.

His theoretical work is often influenced by superstitions and popular medical ideas, including belief in devils or witches. Some treatment methods were obviously based on magical practices, which he successfully integrated into his therapy concept. From today's perspective, Muralt endeavored to pass on scientific knowledge through teaching and descriptive presentation.

Works

 * Vademecum anatomicum sive clavis medicinae. Zürich 1677.
 * Curationes medicae observationibus et experimentis anatomicis mixtae. Amsterdam 1688.
 * Kinder- und Hebammenbüchlein. Zürich 1689, Basel 1697.
 * Chirurgische Schriften. Basel 1691.
 * Hippocrates helveticus oder der Eydgenössische Stadt-, Land- und Hauss-Artzt. Basel 1692.
 * Systema physicae experimentalis, 4 Bände, Zürich 1705–1714.
 * Schriften von der Wund-Artzney. Basel 1711.
 * Kriegs- und Soldaten-Diaet. Zürich 1712.
 * Sichere Anleitung wider den dissmal grassirenden Rothen Schaden. Zürich 1712.
 * Kurtze und Grundlich Beschreibung der ansteckenden Pest. Zürich 1721.

Literature

 * August Hirsch: Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte aller Zeiten und Völker. Band 3. Berlin 1929–1935, S. 302–303.
 * Hans Jakob Finsler: Bemerkungen aus dem Leben des Johannes von Muralt. Zürich 1833.
 * K. Meyer-Ahrens: Die Arztfamilie von Muralt, insbesondere Joh. v. Muralt, Arzt in Zürich. In: Schweizer Zeitschrift für Heilkunde. 1, 1862, S. 268–289, 2, 1863, S. 25–47.
 * Otto Obschlager: Der Zürcher Stadtarzt Johannes von Muralt und der medizinische Aberglaube seiner Zeit. Dissertation. Zürich 1926.
 * Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 9, 1974, S. 581–582.
 * Otto Obschlager: Der Zürcher Stadtarzt Johannes von Muralt und der medizinische Aberglaube seiner Zeit. Dissertation. Zürich 1926.
 * Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 9, 1974, S. 581–582.