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Felix Würtz was a surgeon of the 16th century.
"I also saw right and straight children created by God and born into this world by humans, who became nevertheless bent and lame men, who never got straight and healthy thighs. (…) In addition, I have for instance let a child lay again down and tied up, so that I see, in which way he was swaddled. There I then really saw, where it was gone wrong (…). By misunderstanding however they wanted to bind him straight, but in fact they bind him bent and tighten the bandages hard, so that the child cannot have peace."See Frenken (2011), p. 236. (translation from German by Frenken)
pdf
* John Ruräh: ''Pediatrics of the Past.'' New York 1925.
Life
Würtz was born inZurich
Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
. The dates of his birth and death are uncertain. The date of his birth was between approximately 1500 and 1510, and the date of his death was between approximately 1590 and 1596. Würtz lived and practiced in Zurich and Strasbourg
Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...
.
He received no academic studies, but had his apprenticeship as a 14-year-old youth with a surgeon. Then he was a barber and worked presumably as a feldsher
A feldsher (, , , , , , ) is a health care professional who provides various medical services limited to emergency treatment and ambulance practice. As such, a feldsher is one kind of mid-level medical practitioner.
In Russia, Ukraine and in ...
. From 1536 on he was a member of the guild of barbers in Zurich. He was a friend of Conrad Gesner
Conrad Gessner (; ; 26 March 1516 – 13 December 1565) was a Old Swiss Confederacy, Swiss physician, natural history, naturalist, bibliographer, and philologist. Born into a poor family in Zürich, Switzerland, his father and teachers quickly ...
, the 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 well-known naturalist. Presumably Gesner gave Würtz the advice to write about his experiences and knowledge as a surgeon.
Würtz‘ main work is ''Praktika der Wundartzney'', published in 1563 in 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 ...
. Here Würtz describes his opinion of treatment of wounds and criticizes several medical traditions. This book is called by Steinbrecher as "one of the most original and most important medical books of the 16th century". Würtz is opposed to certain treatment he judges as wrong. He criticizes in particular the surgical suture and recommends only a narrow range of indication. He stresses the importance of the surgeons own practical experiences.
This attitude is also crucial in his ''Children's book'', which was published after his death by his brother Rudolf in 1612 as a part of the book on surgery. This book is an important contribution to pediatrics. Here Würtz brought up for discussion in detail the physical damage and curvatures, which were simply a result of swaddling
Swaddling is an ancient practice of wrapping infants in blankets or similar cloths so that movement of the limbs is tightly restricted. Swaddling bands were often used to further restrict the infant. Swaddling fell out of favour in the 17th cen ...
. He seems to be the first writer who openly criticized certain hard forms of this ancient treatment of babies:
"I also saw right and straight children created by God and born into this world by humans, who became nevertheless bent and lame men, who never got straight and healthy thighs. (…) In addition, I have for instance let a child lay again down and tied up, so that I see, in which way he was swaddled. There I then really saw, where it was gone wrong (…). By misunderstanding however they wanted to bind him straight, but in fact they bind him bent and tighten the bandages hard, so that the child cannot have peace."See Frenken (2011), p. 236. (translation from German by Frenken)
Books
* Felix Würtz: ''Wund-Artzney.'' Basel 1563. * Felix Würtz: ''Kinderbüchlein.'' In: Felix Würtz: ''Wund-Artzney.'' (published in 1675, first edition 1612). p. 674–730.Literature
* Peter M. Dunn: ''Felix Wurtz of Basel (1518–75) and clubfeet.'' In: ''Archives of Disease in Childhood.'' Band 67, 1992, p. 1242–1243. *Hermann Frölich: Würtz, Felix. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Band 44, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, p. 352–354. * Ralph Frenken: ''Gefesselte Kinder: Geschichte und Psychologie des Wickelns.'' Badenweiler 2011. * Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil und Wolfgang Wegner (Hg.): ''Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte.'' Berlin 2005. *August Hirsch
August Hirsch (4 October 1817, Danzig – 28 January 1894, Berlin) was a German physician and medical historian.
Biography
He practiced in Danzig after studying at Berlin and Leipzig. In recognition of his studies on malarial fever and his wor ...
(Hg.): ''Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte aller Zeiten und Völker.'' 5. Band. Berlin und Wien 1934.
* Josef Lorenz: ''Der Chirurg Felix Wirtz, sein Leben und sein Werk.'' (dissertation). Düsseldorf 1940.
* Walter Martin Manzke: ''Remedia pro infantibus. Arzneiliche Kindertherapie im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, dargestellt anhand ausgewählter Krankheiten.'' (dissertation). Marburg 2008.* John Ruräh: ''Pediatrics of the Past.'' New York 1925.
References
External links
Swiss surgeons 1590s deaths Year of birth unknown {{DEFAULTSORT:Wurtz, Felix