ÖTTINGER, JOSEPH:
By: Isidore Singer, A. Beck
Austrian physician; born at Tarnow, Galicia, May 7, 1818; died at Cracow Oct. 2, 1895. He was educated at the University of Cracow (M.D. 1843; Doctor of Surgery 1850). In 1851 he had charge of the lectures on the history of medicine and medical jurisprudence at the university, but the "venia legendi" was refused him for political reasons, mainly because of his intense Polish sympathies as opposed to Austrian control. It was not until 1867 that he became privat-docent. Seven years later he was appointed assistant professor; and this position he held until 1889, when, having reached the age-limit, he retired.
In addition to his university duties Öttinger was physician-in-chief to the Jewish hospital at Cracow, and was a member of the Cracow Academy of Sciences and other learned societies.
Öttinger wrote many studies for the professionaljournals; he was the editor of a dictionary of Polish medical terminology, published by the Society of Physicians of Cracow, of which he was president; and for many years he edited also the medical journal "Przeglad Lekarski." Among his works special mention may be made of the following (all written in Polish): "Notes on the Chief Epidemic Diseases" (1865); "On Medical Superstitions" (1867); "On Epidemic Insanity" (1868); "The Principal Results of Medical Experience" (1870); "The Sick in the Jewish Hospital at Cracow and Their Diseases" (1871); "Some Reminiscences of the Previous History of the Medical Faculty of the Jagellonic University" (1874-76); "The Plague in Europe During the Last Two Centuries" (1879); "Collection of the Hippocratic Writings in the Light of Modern Criticism" (1879); "Medical Notes from the Sixteenth Century" (1880).
