AUSPITZ, HEINRICH:
Austrian dermatologist; born at Nikolsburg, Moravia, Sept. 2, 1835; died May 23, 1886, at Vienna, barely two years after succeeding Zeissl. Auspitz acquired his medical training at the University of Vienna, where he was a pupil of Brücke, Skoda, Rokitansky, Oppolzer, and Hebra; and upon being received as privat-docent at his alma mater, in 1863, lectured on dermatology and syphilis. He was appointed director of the general clinic of Vienna in 1872, and, as soon as a vacancy occurred in the faculty of the university, he was promoted to the position of associate professor in 1875, having still charge of the courses in dermatology and syphilis.
Among his most important contributions to medical science are: "Anatomie des Blatternprocesses," in Virchow's "Archiv," 1863; "Die Lehren vom Syphilitischen Contagium," Vienna, 1865; "Die Zellen-Infiltrationen der Lederhaut bei Lupus, Syphilis, und Skrophulose," in "Medicin. Jahrbücher," Vienna, 1866; "System der Hautkrankheiten," Vienna, 1881, besides a great number of papers and articles which have appeared on the pages of the "Vierteljahresschrift für Dermatologie und Syphilis"—a journal founded (1869) and edited by him—and which had considerable influence on the pathology of skin-diseases. He became a convert to Christianity.
His views, often novel and striking, raised no little discussion and debate; but it is universally conceded that dermatology is indebted to him for a beneficial and fruitful impetus, and for many important and lasting contributions. Especially is this true in regard to his "System der Hautkrankheiten" (translated into French by Doyon under the title "Traité de Pathologie et de Thérapeutique Générales des Maladies de la Peau," Paris, 1887. The same excellence of treatment and originality of thought characterize the chapter (on general pathology and therapeutics of skin-diseases) that H. Auspitz prepared for Ziemssen's "Handbuch der Speciellen Pathologie und Therapie" (vol. xiv.).
- A. Hirsch, Biographisches Lexikon der Hervorragenden Aerzte.
