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Ausgangspunkt dieser Arbeit war die Erstellung eines Werkverzeichnisses über die von Franc verfasste Literatur, um einen Überblick über seine Schriften zu erhalten. Anschließend erfolgte die Übersetzung und Interpretation eines dieser Werke, der ‚Observationis Medicae Miscellaneis‘. Nach der Übersetzung stellte sich heraus, dass es sich hierbei um die Antwort auf ein anderes Schriftstück handeln muss. Dieses konnte nach einer intensiven Suche als ‚Epistola Apologetica‘ ausfindig gemacht werden und wurde zum weiteren Verständnis ebenfalls übersetzt. Die ‚Epistola Apologetica‘ ist eine Schmähschrift gegen Franc, in welcher ihm Behandlungsfehler und Inkompetenz bei der Ausübung der ärztlichen Tätigkeit vorgeworfen werden. Sie bezieht sich auf einen in der ‚Miscellanea curiosa‘ veröffentlichten Artikel mit dem Titel ‚Mercurius vivus in Hernia lethalis‘. Schwerpunktthema des medizinischen Disputs ist dabei die Behandlung einer Hernie mit Quecksilber, welche Franc hier anhand eines Patientenbeispiels beschreibt. Die Identifizierung der ‚Epistola Apologetica‘ als Schmähschrift öffnet die Tür zu einem weiteren Forschungsthema, der Invektivität. Diese umfasst alle Kommunikationsformen, die der Schmähung, Herabwürdigung, Bloßstellung oder Beschämung anderer dienen und ist ein hochaktuelles Thema.

Das Buch ���Praxis medica��� aus dem Nachlass des Ulmer Stadtarztes Dr. Johann Franc (1649 - 1725) ist eine handschriftlich, in lateinischer Sprache verfasste, Rezeptsammlung aus einer Lindauer Apotheke. Die ���Praxis medica��� ist kein Praxistagebuch, sondern eine Erg��nzung zu den in Lindau vom Rat vorgeschriebenen Arzneib��chern, Pharmacopoeia Augustana und Dispensatorium des Valerius Cordus. Das Lindauer Rezeptbuch erm��glicht R��ckschl��sse auf die akzeptierte medizinische Praxis im 16. bzw. 17. Jahrhundert. Circa 1000 Rezepte sind aufgef��hrt, von denen 324 untersucht wurden. Durch eine Handschriftenanalyse nach Prof. Dr. Lothar Michel lie��en sich f��nf Handschriften abgrenzen. Als Schreiber sind Apothekengehilfen, Apotheker und auch ��rzte zu vermuten. Eine zeitliche Einordnung der Rezepte erfolgte anhand der Lebens- und Schaffensdaten der in den Verordnungen genannten ��rzte, Apotheker und Patienten, sowie Pestausbr��chen in Lindau. Der Gro��teil der Rezepte stammt aus dem 16. Jahrhundert. Bei den untersuchten Rezepten handelt es sich vorwiegend um Pest- und Syphilis- Therapeutika. Die im 16. Jahrhundert zaghaft aufkommende Kritik an der Humoralpathologie und das Entstehen der Iatrochemie wird in den Rezepten sichtbar. Verordnungen, die der Dreckapotheke zuzuordnen sind, sind nur vereinzelt aufgef��hrt. Eine Transkription der Rezepte befindet sich im Anhang.

Grundlage dieser Dissertation ist das Praxisjournal "Ephemeris" des Ulmer Arztes Dr. Johann Franc (1649-1725), aus dem dreizehn Kapitel, die vor allem neurologische Krankheitsbilder beschreiben, transkribiert und aus dem Lateinischen übersetzt wurden. Der Schwerpunkt der Diskussion liegt dabei auf den Kapiteln "Epilepsia" (Epilepsie) und "Vigilia nimiae" (Schlaflosigkeit), in denen Franc zahlreiche Patienten behandelt, die unter Krampfanfällen leiden. Nach einem Überblick über die Epilepsiegeschichte, die bis in das zweite Jahrtausend vor Christus zurückreicht, werden die verschiedenen medizinischen Theorien aus dem Übergang des 17. zum 18. Jahrhundert erläutert. Am Beispiel der Epilepsietherapie wird die Diagnostik und Therapie verschiedener Ärzte des 17. Jahrhunderts mit der des Ulmer Stadtarztes verglichen und untersucht, ob Franc's Maßnahmen dem Stand der Wissenschaft dieser Zeit entsprochen haben.

Franciscus Sylvius, latinized from Franz de le Boë (*15 March 1614 in Hanau; † 14 November 1672 in Leiden), was a Hessian-Dutch physician, anatomist, and natural scientist of Flemish descent. He was an important clinician and iatrochemist, and is considered the founder of scientifically oriented medicine and clinical chemistry. Sylvius introduced the concept of affinity and dealt with digestive processes and body fluids. He was one of the leading exponents of the concept of blood circulation developed by William Harvey. As the person responsible for practical medicine in Leiden, Sylvius established bedside teaching as part of the medical curriculum, and he introduced his students to clinical medicine in an experimental way, both contrary to the rules of the time. He was also interested in pharmacology, herbalism and botany. For heartburn and digestive disorders, Sylvius mixed juniper berries, herbs and alcohol to create a medicine. According to legend, Sylvius marketed this medicine as Genever, for which the name Gin was later adopted in the British Isles, but not only used for medical purposes. Accordingly, the city of birth of Sylvius today calls itself a "birthplace of gin".

Die Grundlage dieser Dissertation bilden 87 gedruckte Leichenpredigten aus Rudolstadt im Zeitraum von 1605 bis 1720. Anhand der Schilderungen von Symptomen in den Lebensläufen der Verstorbenen wurden die Todesursachen analysiert. Außerdem finden weitere Informationen zu Beruf, Sterbealter, Geschlecht, Ärzten und Therapiemaßnahmen Eingang in die Auswertungen. Ziel dieser Arbeit war nicht nur die medizinhistorische Auseinandersetzung mit einer Region unter der Schirmherrschaft einer Grafschaft im Herzen des protestantischen Deutschlands des 17. Jahrhunderts, sondern auch der Vergleich mit den Ergebnissen von Seidel, Moll und Spickereit über eine größere Stadt wie Ulm und die oberdeutschen Reichsstädte. Abgesehen von einzelnen Unterschieden sind die Tendenzen in der Häufigkeit der Todesursachen, Berufsgruppen und dem Sterbealter ähnlich. Besonderheit des untersuchten Samples aus Rudolstadt ist die, mit Abstand, häufigere Erwähnung von Ärzten und Therapiemaßnahmen.

In 1601, Johannes Jessenius published the surgical work Institutiones chirurgicae, which is of particular importance for the history of surgery in Germany. So far, research has predominantly concentrated on the anatomical works of Jessenius; his surgical work including aspects of urology has not been the subject of investigation.In the present article, we analyze the structure, reasoning, and linguistic means used by the author in this work.According to the introduction, surgery comprises three basic components: agens, actor or the surgeon, actio, the activity, that is, the operation, and per quae et quibus actio perficitur, which means instruments and medications. The operations are arranged in contrasts, solutio continuorum-junctio separatorum, the dissolution of the connected-connection of the separate, extirpatio superfluorum-recuperatio deficientium, to eliminate the superfluous-to restore the missing. The description of the instruments is also based on opposite pairs.The three elements of surgical work represent a reduction of what is stated in the Hippocratic text De officina. Thus, recognizable here is an ancient tradition, which was also known to the predecessors of Jessenius.At the beginning of the work, aspects of an introduction to the surgical work of the 16th century are briefly recapitulated. Jessenius adheres to this historical tradition including aspects of urology of this work. In the introduction, he refers to various medical writers, without directly adopting the texts. The surgical artistry that Jessenius stands for is of fundamental importance to this day.

The operative aspect of radical prostatectomy has changed dramatically in the past 200 years as significant technological advances have been made, particularly during the past 50 years. The work of Dr. Walsh in the late 1970 s and early 1980 s led to a significant reduction in surgical morbidity and is considered an important milestone of radical prostatectomy, as is the introduction of minimally-invasive (robotic-assisted) surgical techniques. Yet there is no absolute gold standard regarding surgical approaches. Innovative tools, e. g. the addition of "augmented reality", are currently under investigation. This review article for the anniversary issue of "Der Urologe" aims to cover the milestones of the evolution of this "signature" surgery in the field of urology.Die Durchführung der radikalen Prostatektomie hat sich in den letzten 200 Jahren deutlich verändert; gerade in den letzten 50 Jahren entwickelte sich die Technik deutlich weiter. Als Meilensteine dürfen zum einen die Arbeiten von Walsh in den späten 70er und frühen 80er Jahren angesehen werden, welche zu einer signifikanten Reduktion der Morbidität des Eingriffes führten, zum anderen die Einführung (Roboter-assistierter) minimal-invasiver Operationstechniken. Den absoluten Goldstandard bzgl. des Zuganges gibt es bis heute nicht. Innovative Ansätze, z. B. die Zuhilfenahme der sog. „augmented reality“ werden aktuell bzgl. ihres Potentials evaluiert. Dieser Übersichtsartikel in der Jubiläumsausgabe des Urologen beschäftigt sich mit den Meilensteinen der Entwicklung dieses für die Urologie wichtigen Eingriffs.

The present dissertation was submitted in 1713 at the University of Halle as part of the requirements to obtain the "licentiat". The author was Johann Michael Eisenbarth, the oldest son of the well-known physician Johann Andreas Eisenbarth. The dissertation delivers an overview over the history of the cystotomy, leading back to antiquity. In sixty paragraphs, the author dealt with different issues, such as diagnosis, preparation, and aftercare of patients with urinary bladder stones. However, the center of the thesis is the critical evaluation of all surgical methods known three hundred years ago.

This essay starts from considerations on the current state of the history of science. From these considerations it becomes clear that the far-reaching insights into the role of local contexts for the development of science achieved during the past decennia need to be complemented by equally far-reaching insights from a global history of knowledge. Some theoretical foundations of such a global history are then being discussed. The concept of knowledge, in particular, is related to a concept of action that is in turn conceived as being rooted in social and material contexts. In this way, knowledge can be understood both with regard to its local conditions and with regard to globalization processes and their long-term effects. The emerging picture is illustrated by a brief survey of some key episodes of the history of knowledge. Among these key episodes are the emergence of writing and of mathematics, the spread of knowledge by the so-called world religions, and the Scientific Revolution of the early modem period. All these periods are discussed from a global perspective. By way of conclusion, the question is being raised of a possible contribition of this perspective for dealing with current challenges of science and society.

The eponym of our expertise, Johann Juncker, is not well known, but was an outstanding medical scientist in the first half of the 18th century. Because of his pietism and his admiration for Georg Ernst Stahl, he never studied medicine. As a self-taught man, he was appointed to the orphanage hospital in Halle in 1717. One year later he received his doctorate. His most eminent achievement was the introduction of the "bedside student education in collegium clinicum". In 1729, he became full professor. Another year later, he gave distinction to the word "urologia" and the future name of our specialization was born. Juncker had a reputation far beyond Halle. He was ahead of his time not only with bedside student education, but also with his commitment to the enrollment of women at universities. Under his aegis and in his private house, Dorothea Christiane Erxleben (1715-1762) was the first woman to receive her doctor's degree in 1754.

Missionary pharmacy developed as a special type of the European pharmacy from the 16th to the 18th centuries in the overseas missions in the context of the proclamation of the Christian faith, the European expansion and the beginning globalization. As this type of pharmacy was determined by the specific circumstances of the medical-pharmaceutical situation in the mission countries as well as by the knowledge of the missionaries themselves, it can be defined as missionary pharmacy. It followed principally the model of the medieval monastery pharmacy and paved the way for the Medical Mission at the beginning of the 19th century. Different lines of development on various levels of exchange, forming, documenting and transmission of knowledge shaped the concept of the missionary pharmacy. The activities in the context of the missionary pharmacy initiated a global transfer of drugs and the referring pharmaceutical knowledge, which was institutionalized by the pharmacies of the Jesuits and essentially influenced the development of the Materiae medicae and the development of modern pharmacy all around the globe. The trading routes of typical drugs like the Fever bark and compositions can reconstruct this international transfer of knowledge. Still nowadays, knowledge of the missionary pharmacy, especially about genuine plants of the non-European countries, can be interesting for the development of new phytotherapeutics and possibly active substances.

The programme of the Academia Naturae Curiosorum (today the German Academy of the Sciences Leopoldina) was considerably revised less than twenty years after its creation, in 1652. At the heart of this reform lay the Miscellanea curiosa, the journal that ,,the Curiosi" now started publishing. The ,,epistemic genre" (Gianna PoMATA) they chose for the articles in the Miscellanea curiosa was the observatio. Writing an observatio implied singling out a nugget of experience and documenting it in writing. In the first half-century of its existence, rare things of nature figured prominently in the Miscellanea curiosa. Physicians from all over Europe sent in a seemingly endless stream of reports on monsters. This was increasingly considered as problematic by leading members and functionaries of the academy. Their reluctance to accept ever more observationes on monsters for publication in the Miscellanea curiosa can in part be accounted for by reference to the rarity paradox: preternatural phenomena, by definition rare, seemed to be almost ubiquitous in the naturalist discourse of the period. Furthermore, many of the manuscripts on monsters sent in for publication did not live up to expectations. Even more worrisome, the Curiosi could not but note that monsters were still often interpreted as prodigies bearing divine messages. They had the potential to cause unrest and disorder among the populace and therefore had to be handled with particular care.

The "Akademie der Naturforscher" (Academy of Natural Scientists) was founded in 1652; in 1687 Emperor LEOPOLD 1. raised it in the rank of an imperial academy (Sacri Romani Imperii Academia Caesareo-Leopoldina Naturae Curiosorum). The president and the editor of the academic periodical (Director Ephemeridum) got the same privileges as imperial physicians. Based on this the duties of the physicians and their status within the court hierarchy are explained. During the reign of LEOPOLD I there were 61 persons who worked as physicians at court. The prosopographical analysis shows their distribution to the households of the members of the imperial family. Other aspects are their origin, their education and their relationship to the University of Vienna. Finally we learn about the imperial physicians as members of the Academy and as mediators between the Academy and the court.

The diary of the town physician Johannes Franc (1649-1725), handwritten in Latin, gives-among other diseases-an overview of sexually transmitted infections affecting citizens in Ulm such as syphilis and gonorrhea. Franc reported on his own experiences in the diary and also included many theoretical details on the causes of the diseases and the corresponding therapies, including ethical considerations. Even in ancient times, there are indications of venereal diseases. However, at the latest with the outbreak of syphilis around the year 1495, the treatment and control of the spread of venereal diseases became an important task of medicine. Before gonococci were detected by Neisser in 1879, sexually transmitted diseases were generally seen as a single disease. However, at the beginning of the 18

A long and winding road led to the discovery of immunoglobulin E (IgE) in 1966 and 1967. We are currently on a long and winding road to understand the immunologic basis of the clinical effects of the anti-IgE antibody omalizumab in asthma. It is possible that patients with asthma (as patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria) benefit in different immunologic ways from omalizumab treatment. This article reviews the history of IgE discovery and current concepts of anti-IgE therapy in asthma.Es war ein langer und verschlungener Weg, der zur Entdeckung von Immunglobulin E (IgE) in den Jahren 1966 und 1967 führte. Wir befinden uns aktuell auf einem langen und verschlungenen Weg, um die immunologische Basis der klinischen Wirkung des Anti-IgE-Antikörpers Omalizumab bei Asthma zu begreifen. Möglicherweise profitieren beim Asthma (ähnlich wie bei der chronisch spontanen Urtikaria) Patienten auf unterschiedliche immunologische Art und Weise von einer Omalizumab-Therapie. Dieser Artikel gibt einen Überblick über die Historie der IgE-Entdeckung und die aktuellen Konzepte der Anti-IgE-Therapie bei Asthma.

A number of designations for diseases, medicines and human body structures derive from classical mythology. To date, these eponyms have not been systematically investigated.This paper provides an overview of this fringe component of medical vocabulary, looks at the history of several terms and formulates hypotheses as to why such creative etymologies have come into being.In addition to relevant texts on ancient mythology, a variety of medical textbooks from the early modern period were analyzed.Between the 16th and the 20th centuries some 30 figures from Greek and Roman literature made their way into the terminology of medical sciences. A few of these expressions can be encountered in clinical use (e. g., Caput Medusae, Proteus, Oedipus complex) and remain official anatomical (atlas, Achilles tendon) or pharmaceutical nomenclature (atropine, morphine). The choice of these designations has often been similarity of form or analogies in function. Classical eponyms have gained acceptance on account of their succinctness, conciseness and scholarly veneer. Finally, this vocabulary shares its origin with other relevant terminology.In clinical classes, mythological designations can serve as a point of departure for digressions into literary, art and medical history in order to provide an understanding of cultural traditions and enhance education.

In the age of globalization and cultural diversification differing concepts of pain in patient care are of increasing importance. Historical models of the origin and interpretation of pain, which in this article are presented in a cursory and exemplary way, help to understand the panoply of modern concepts outside of medicine. Basically, pain was viewed not only in religion and philosophy but also by premodern physicians as a psychophysical phenomenon crucially depending on the determination by a "soul" therefore creating therapeutic options even before the discovery of an effective analgesia. Furthermore, the historical interpretations of pain in and outside of medicine can still be of profound importance to patients even today.

The beginnings of modern western medicine reach to about 1800 when under the liberating influence of French Revolution observation of diseases was started to follow more scientifically justified criteria. At that time speculative doctrines prevailed, e. g. those set up natural philosopher Schelling. In this context Internist Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs at Berlin Charité University Hospital gained great merits because of his struggle for a scientifically-based experimental clinical medicine. This is demonstrated nicely in a recently found autograph document.

Today Miliary Tuberculosis in Central Europe is a rare disease, quite often with resulting diagnostic uncertainty. The terms "miliary" and "tubercle" are outlined with their up to now accepted historical roots. An analysis of Marcello Malpighi's quite unknown post-mortem reports by the Italian author L. Munster reveals an earlier use of both terms than described till now.

Cancer can be traced back to the Iron Age. Both the ancient Egyptians and Hippocrates dealt with the disease. Urological tumor treatment is an integral part of urology and has undergone interesting developments. Today, it comprises all possible forms of treatment-from radical surgery to the most modern radiological therapies, including antihormal therapy, chemotherapy, and modern targeted therapy.

In recent years the regional aspects of medical history in the field of urology have been more intensively studied. There is already an interesting study on the history of urology in Rhineland. This article examines the checkered medical history aspects concerning urology in provincial areas of Germany, exemplified by the Bavarian town of Regensburg. The article combines the history of the over 1800-year-old town of Regensburg, one of the oldest German communities, with selected aspects of medical history and follows the route of "stones" from antiquity to the present day. The article explains what Regensburg, Galen of Pergamon and his professional colleagues from antiquity have in common, why monastery medicine was so successful here, how syphilis patients were treated in imperial cities (Reichsstädte), why one of the greatest "stone cutters" of the era met with an accident in the perpetual Reichstag town of Regensburg and how a main department of urology was finally founded after a delay but ultimately with tempo, which in 2003 led to the establishment of the most recent chair for urology in Germany.

Analysing all the surviving reports and mentions of the supposed unicorn discovered in the year 1663 near Quedlinburg, this paper replies to the question: "Who reconstructed the skeleton of the unicorn from a find of bones, O. von Guericke or G. W. Leibniz?" and diagnoses that neither of them did so. The author of the first report with a figure was Johannes Meyer, astronomer and treasurer of the Abbes Superior of Quedlinburg; and his German text had been translated by both partly in different ways (Guericke's Experimenta nova, printed in 1672 and used by Leibniz; Leibniz's Protogaea, first printed posthumously in 1749). Discovery, excavation, salvage and reconstruction of the unicorn were ascribed to Guericke only by Othenio Abel (for the first time in 1918 and thereafter on many occasions) without indicating any source for that. His story of the supposed discovery since then has been embellished with a lot of imagination further and further. However, Leibniz himself wrote in his Protogaea, that a figure of the unicorn skeleton (which Guericke does not reproduce) had been sent to him together with a report (by J. Meyer from Quedlinburg); and this figure he and his engraver Nicholas Seeländer 'corrected' and completed in accordance with their own imagination of a unicorn's build in 1716 to illustrate the Protogaea (M. B. Valentini printed a copy of Meyer's original in 1704).

At this time randomized controlled studies (RCT) in clinical trials usually have high quality. But this quality is only true for the included patients (intrinsic validity). It is common to generalize the results to more or less similar patients. This inductive method is prohibited in epistemology what is known for 250 years (D Hume, K R Popper). Therefore the external validity for the data of RCT is low. To solve this problem additional clinical and pathophysiological based data are necessary to generalize the results. Unfortunately RCT show less quality in their premises. This is partly due to the influence of the pharmaceutical industry. A loss of universality of the hypothesis for RCT decreases basically the extrinsic validity. The articles describe this problem with examples.

Today, lumbar disc disease is a very common disease, which will be often seen in both the family practice as well as in the consultations of orthopedics, neurology, rheumatology or neurosurgery. Furthermore, lumbar disc surgery is one of the most common spinal surgical procedures worldwide. But, for many centuries, physician had no clear understanding of the anatomical condition and the pathomechanism of this disease. Therefore, no rational treatment was available. The Hippocratic physicians knew the signs and symptoms of lumbar disc disease, which they then called "sciatica". But, they subsumed different disorders, like hip diseases under this term. In the mid-18th century, it was the Italian physician Domenico Felice Antonio Cotugno (1736-1822), who first brought clarity in the concept of radicular syndromes; he recognized, that the so-called "sciatica" could be of neurogenic origin. In 1742, a contemporary of Cotugno, the German Josias Weitbrecht (1702-1747) has to be credited for the first precise description of the intervertebral disc. Nearby a hundred years later, the German Hubert von Luschka (1820-1875) described for the first time a herniated disc in a pathologic specimen. With the landmark report of the New England Journal of Medicine in 1934, the two American surgeons, William Jason Mixter (1880-1958) and Joseph Seaton Barr (1901-1963), finally cleared the pathomechanism of lumbar disc disease.

In ancient times as well as in the Middle Ages treatment options for discogenic nerve compression syndrome were limited and usually not very specific because of low anatomical and pathophysiological knowledge. The stretch rack (scamnum Hippocratis) was particularly prominent but was widely used as a therapeutic device for very different spinal disorders. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century anatomical knowledge increased and the advances in the fields of asepsis, anesthesia and surgery resulted in an increase in surgical interventions on the spine. In 1908 the first successful lumbar discectomy was initiated and performed by the German neurologist Heinrich O. Oppenheim (1858-1919) and the surgeon Fedor Krause (1857-1937); however, neither recognized the true pathological condition of discogenic nerve compression syndrome. With the landmark report in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1934, the two American surgeons William Jason Mixter (1880-1958) and Joseph Seaton Barr (1901-1963) finally clarified the pathomechanism of lumbar disc herniation and furthermore, propagated discectomy as the standard therapy. Since then interventions on intervertebral discs rapidly increased and the treatment options for lumbar disc surgery quickly evolved. The surgical procedures changed over time and were continuously being refined. In the late 1960s the surgical microscope was introduced for spinal surgery by the work of the famous neurosurgeon Mahmut Gazi Yasargil and his colleague Wolfhard Caspar and so-called microdiscectomy was introduced. Besides open discectomy other interventional techniques were developed to overcome the side effects of surgical procedures. In 1964 the American orthopedic surgeon Lyman Smith (1912-1991) introduced chemonucleolysis, a minimally invasive technique consisting only of a cannula and the proteolytic enzyme chymopapain, which is injected into the disc compartment to dissolve the displaced disc material. In 1975 the Japanese orthopedic surgeon Sadahisa Hijikata described percutaneous discectomy for the first time, which was a further minimally invasive surgical technique. Further variants of minimally invasive surgical procedures, such as percutaneous laser discectomy in 1986 and percutaneous endoscopic microdiscectomy in 1997, were also introduced; however, open discectomy, especially microdiscectomy remains the therapeutic gold standard for lumbar disc herniation.

Hippocrates was the first to intensively describe and document the principles for the treatment of injuries and diseases of the spine. His principles for abrupt treatment of the "hunchback" were followed by physicians even up to the end of the nineteenth century. The non-operative treatment of scoliosis was improved in the beginning of the sixteenth century by the introduction of mechanical devices that started the development of corsets which are still in use in modern scoliosis treatment. Stretching beds were only in temporary use. With the beginning of the nineteenth century gymnastics and physiotherapy became more and more important. Manual therapy was exercised by physicians until the late Middle Ages. After a long period of time in which bonesetters and other laymen performed manual therapy it was professionalized at the end of the nineteenth century again by the introduction of osteopathy and chiropractic. In Germany the development and introduction of manual treatment started relatively late in the twentieth century, predominantly as manual medicine.

The Italian physician and botanist Prospero Alpini (1553-1617) is considered as one of the most famous 16th Century Italian botanists having explored the plant species of Egypt and the Near East. Alpinis best-known works as for example De medicina Egyptiorum (Venetijs 1591) or De plantis Aegypti liber (Venetijs 1592), however, wouldn't certainly have been made possible without the influence of his academic teacher, the Prussian physician and botanist Melchior Wieland (ca. 1520-1589), having been applied director of the botanical garden of Padua in 1561. This study is therefore dedicated to the life, academic career, works and reception of this nearly forgotten botanist.

This essay provides an overview of the scientific literature regarding the history of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Wittenberg, Germany. The University of Wittenberg was the domain, where Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchton worked; in the 16th century it was one of the greatest universities of the Holy Roman Empire. There has been a controversial discussion on the history of the Faculty of Medicine since the mid-19th century. Since the 1980s, it is an accepted and studied field of research on its own. The various publications on the topic can be subdivided into three specific areas: 1. Reformation and medicine, 2. biographic works on professors of medicine, and 3. historical works regarding social and librarian fields of research. The results of those works can be interpreted and merged in view of the Faculty of Medicine. However, for a revalidation of the faculty's role within an European scientific scene further scrutiny of sources is needed.