Eberhard Gockel (also Eberhard Göckel; 1636–1703) was a German

city physician City physician (German language, German: ; , , from Latin ) was a historical title in the Late Middle Ages for a physician appointed by the city council. The city physician was responsible for the health of the population, particularly the poor, ...

, personal physician () to the Duke of Württemberg, and member of the

German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (), in short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on 1 January 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the ''Academi ...

. He is known for discovering the link between

lead poisoning Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, infertility, numbness and paresthesia, t ...

, historically known as dry colic, , and , and the consumption of lead through lead-sweetened wine.

Life

Gockel was born in 1636 in

Ulm, Germany Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...

, to Johann Georg Gockel and Maria Eberhardina. His father was

() in Ulm. After completing his studies at sixteen, he studied medicine in Tübingen and Basel, receiving his doctorate in 1656. He was a physician in

Waiblingen Waiblingen (; Swabian: ''Woeblinge'') is a town in the southwest of Germany, located in the center of the densely populated Stuttgart region, directly neighboring Stuttgart. It is the capital and largest city of the Rems-Murr district. , Waiblin ...

, later in

Giengen Giengen (; full name: Giengen an der Brenz; Swabian: ''Gẽänge'') is a former Free Imperial City in eastern Baden-Württemberg near the border with Bavaria in southern Germany. The town is located in the district of Heidenheim at the eastern ...

, and finally in Ulm, where he also worked as the personal physician to the Duke of Württemberg–Weiltingen. Gockel was a proponent of

iatrochemistry Iatrochemistry (; also known as chemiatria or chemical medicine) is an archaic pre-scientific school of thought that was supplanted by modern chemistry and medicine. Having its roots in alchemy, iatrochemistry sought to provide chemical solutions ...

and wrote about illnesses caused by werewolves and magic. He authored a number of works, including on Leopoldina members

Daniel Sennert Daniel Sennert (25 November 1572 – 21 July 1637) was a German physician and a prolific academic writer, especially in the field of alchemy or chemistry. He held the position of professor of medicine at the University of Wittenberg for many year ...

and

Christian Franz Paullini Christian Franz Paullini (25 February 1643 – 10 June 1712) was a German physician, theologian, and writer. Biography Paullini was born in Eisenach to a family of merchants and scholars. His parents wanted him to become a priest and his initia ...

. and In 1656 Gockel married Maria Barbara Ruoff. The couple had 18 children, including sons Christopher Erasmus Gockel, a physician and , a physician and pharmacist. In 1685, Gockel was accepted as a member of the

with the epithet ''ALECTOR'' (member number 129). Gockel died in Ulm in 1703.

Discovery of lead poisoning

Since Ancient Roman times, lead in the form of

litharge Litharge (from Greek , 'stone' + 'silver' ) is one of the natural mineral forms of lead(II) oxide, PbO. Litharge is a secondary mineral which forms from the oxidation of galena ores. It forms as coatings and encrustations with internal tetr ...

or sugar of lead had been used to sweeten wine or balance its acidity. Sweetening wine in this manner was a common practice in Ulm in Gockel's day in order to compensate for poor quality grapes. However, the connection between the ill-effects of lead on the body – known by multiple names: Latin and and English ''dry colic'' – and consumption of lead was not known. Symptoms of

had traditionally been thought to be due to an imbalance in the

humors Humorism, the humoral theory, or humoralism, was a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers. Humorism began to fall out of favor in the 17th c ...

. In the 1600s, a number of outbreaks of lead poisoning occurred. The severe '

colic Colic or cholic () is a form of pain that starts and stops abruptly. It occurs due to muscular contractions of a hollow tube (small and large intestine, gall bladder, ureter, etc.) in an attempt to relieve an obstruction by forcing content ou ...

of Poitou, France' was described by the physician of

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religi ...

but the cause was unknown. In 1694 it struck two monasteries Gockel was responsible for. Several people at the monastery fell ill and died not long after dining together on Christmas. After having been served wine himself while visiting the monastery, he became sick with fever and severe pain. He noted that those who had not consumed the wine were unaffected. The event led him to discover sediment in the bottom of the wine barrel and that a local wine merchant had been adding litharge, lead oxide, to the wine, causing lead poisoning symptoms. In 1697, Gockel published a paper on the cause of "wine disease". He credited

Samuel Stockhausen Samuel Stockhausen was a German physician in the mining town of Goslar. He studied the ancient miner's disease, called , among workers in the nearby mines of Rammelsberg in the Harz mountains. In 1656 he published a book, in Latin, attributing the ...

's 1656 work describing the symptoms of lead poisoning among miners, then known as . Other local physicians reached the same conclusion, and Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg, banned the addition of litharge to wine in 1696.

Writings

* (1667). Fick, Nördlingen. (1668) Leipzig. * (1668) Nördlingen. * (1669). Goebel, Augustae Vindelicorum. * (1679). Göbel, Augsburg. * (1683). Augusta Vindelicorum. * (1697). Kühn, Ulm. * (1697). Kühn, Ulm. * ''... ''(1699). Kroniger

t al T, or t, is the twentieth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is de ...

Franckfurt

(1717) Hagen, Franckfurt; Leipzig. * (1700). Ulm. *

References

Notes

Sources

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gockel, Eberhard 1636 births 1703 deaths People from Ulm 17th-century German physicians 18th-century German physicians