Felix Plater
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Felix Platter (also Plater ; ; Latinized: Platerus; 28 October 1536 – 28 July 1614) was a
Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...
physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
, botanist, and diarist. He is known for his research in several areas of medicine, including
ophthalmology Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...
and
psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...
.


Biography

Felix Platter was the son of
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
humanist, schoolmaster, and printer, Thomas Platter, and the half-brother of Thomas Platter the Younger. In 1552, at the age of sixteen, Platter travelled by pony from
Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
to the
University of Montpellier The University of Montpellier () is a public university, public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous opera ...
to start a course of study under
Guillaume Rondelet Guillaume Rondelet (27 September 150730 July 1566), also known as Rondeletus/Rondeletius, was Regius professor of medicine at the University of Montpellier in southern France and Chancellor of the University between 1556 and his death in 1566. He ...
. He lodged in the house of Laurent Catalan, a pharmacist and a
Marrano ''Marranos'' is a term for Spanish and Portuguese Jews, as well as Navarrese jews, who converted to Christianity, either voluntarily or by Spanish or Portuguese royal coercion, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but who continued t ...
or Christian Jew. Platter's studies took place against a background of religious persecution; the
French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...
would start within a decade. Returning to Basel in 1557, Platter was awarded the
medical doctorate A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of physician. This ge ...
by the
University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis''; German: ''Universität Basel'') is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...
and established himself as a successful doctor. He became
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, ...
and a professor of practical medicine. As part of his teaching, he carried out hundreds of
dissection Dissection (from Latin ' "to cut to pieces"; also called anatomization) is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause of ...
s of the human body. In 1602 and 1604, his book ''Praxeos'' (translated into English in the 1660s as ''Golden Practice of Physick'') gave a rational classification of diseases, based on their symptoms and postmortem findings. He was notable for attributing mental illness to natural causes, although he still allowed the possibility of mental illness caused by an evil spirit. The book was quoted dozens of times by Robert Burton in ''
The Anatomy of Melancholy ''The Anatomy of Melancholy'' (full title: ''The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is: With all the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Several Cures of it. In Three Maine Partitions with their several Sections, Members, and Subsections. Ph ...
''. During the plague of 1563-1564 in Basel, Platter stayed to attend the ill while other physicians fled. Four thousand people, a quarter of the city's population, died of the plague. Platter treated plague victims again during the epidemics of 1576, 1582, 1593, and 1609. He compiled detailed statistics on these epidemics. He was the first to describe an intracranial
tumor A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...
(a
meningioma Meningioma, also known as meningeal tumor, is typically a slow-growing tumor that forms from the meninges, the membranous layers surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms depend on the location and occur as a result of the tumor pressing ...
), hypertrophy of the
thalamus The thalamus (: thalami; from Greek language, Greek Wikt:θάλαμος, θάλαμος, "chamber") is a large mass of gray matter on the lateral wall of the third ventricle forming the wikt:dorsal, dorsal part of the diencephalon (a division of ...
, the broad tapeworm, and Dupuytren's contracture of the hand. Finally, Platter did important work on ophthalmology. He identified the
retina The retina (; or retinas) is the innermost, photosensitivity, light-sensitive layer of tissue (biology), tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some Mollusca, molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focus (optics), focused two-dimensional ...
rather than the
lens A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...
as the visual receptor of the eye. He observed congenital
cataract A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens (anatomy), lens of the eye that leads to a visual impairment, decrease in vision of the eye. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colours, blurry or ...
s and was the first to recognize that people who worked near a fire (such as
alchemist Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...
s) were vulnerable to cataracts, now called glassblower's cataracts. He had a strong inclination toward music; he played the lute and translated songs into the Basel dialect. His friends in the scholarly world included
Conrad Gessner Conrad Gessner (; ; 26 March 1516 – 13 December 1565) was a Swiss physician, naturalist, bibliographer, and philologist. Born into a poor family in Zürich, Switzerland, his father and teachers quickly realised his talents and supported him t ...
and
Theodor Zwinger Theodor Zwinger the Elder (2 August 1533 – 10 March 1588) was a Swiss physician and Renaissance humanist scholar. He made significant contributions to the emerging genres of reference and travel literature. He was the first distinguished repre ...
. Platter amassed a famous collection of curiosities at his house, including art, musical instruments, precious stones, and biological specimens. Part of his herbarium is preserved at the
University of Bern The University of Bern (, , ) is a public university, public research university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a br ...
, including 813 specimens from Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, and Egypt.
Michel de Montaigne Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne ( ; ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), commonly known as Michel de Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularising the the essay ...
, on a visit to Basel in 1580, admired Platter's collection: "it was his practice, instead of painting like other botanists the plants according to their natural colors, to glue the same upon paper with so great care and dexterity that the smallest leaves and fibres should be visible, exactly as in nature.... At this house, and in the public school as well, we saw entire skeletons of men." Platter's diary gives a vivid account of his childhood, his life as a medical student at Montpellier, and his travels in France.; ; .


References


Writings

* Platter, Felix (1583)
De corporis humani structura et usu
3 volumes. Basel: Ambrosius Froben. * Platter, Felix (1602–1608). ''Praxeos seu de cognoscendis, praedicendis, praecavendis, curandisque homini incommodantibus tractatus''. Basel: Konrad Waldkirch. Vol. 1
De functionum laesionibus
vol. 2
De doloribus
vol. 3
De vitiis
* Platter, Felix (1614)
Observationum in hominis affectibus plerisque corpori et animo functionum laesione, dolore aliave molestia et vitio incommodantibus libri tres
Basel: Ludwig König. * *


Bibliography

* *


External links

*
Digitalized herbarium
of Felix Platter, in the Burgerbibliothek of Bern 1536 births 1614 deaths 16th-century Swiss physicians 17th-century Swiss physicians Swiss medical writers {{Switzerland-med-bio-stub