Contacts in natural sciences between Riga and England in 1660–1710 [Loodusteaduslikud kontaktid Riia ja Inglismaa vahel 1660–1710]

London became one of the most important centres for the natural sciences in the latter half of the seventeenth century. The sphere of influence of the Royal Society of London, as well as that of the first natural scientific periodical, the Philosophical Transactions, covered all of Europe through a network of fellows of the Society and of contributors to the periodical. This article examines the mutual contacts between persons interested in natural sciences in England as the centre of natural science and Riga as the centre of one of Europe’s peripheral regions. The main characters under scrutiny are Nicolaus Witte von Lilienau (1618–88) and David Krieg (about 1669–1710). Riga’s municipal physician Witte corresponded and exchanged books and objects with the treasurer of the Royal Society, Abraham Hill (1633–1721). Krieg, a doctor of German descent working in Riga, spent an entire year in England in the company of England’s naturalists, and went to the American colonies in 1698 to collect specimens of natural history. In 1699 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and corresponded until 1708 with the secretary of the Royal Society Hans Sloane and the collectionnaire James Petiver. Also, several doctoral candidates from Riga who ventured out on academic peregrinations after completing their university studies visited London. KEYWORDS: History of natural sciences, Royal Society of London, Philosophical Transactions, David Krieg, Nicolaus Witte von Lilienau, Rig

Commentarii actorum Senatus Universitatis Tartuensis (Academiae Gustavianae) ab anno MDCXXXII usque ad annum MDCLVI

http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b1126026~S1*es

Riga Municipal Physician Nicolaus Witte von Lilienau (1618–1688): His Medical Views at the Crossroads of Tradition and Changes in Medical Teaching during his Student Years at Dutch Universities in the 1640s

The main subject of this article, Nicolaus Witte von Lilienau (1618– 1688), a native of Riga was the city’s municipal physician in 1652–1688. His studies at university proceeded during the 1640s in Netherlands, particularly at Leiden but also at Utrecht and Franeker. The universities of Leiden and Utrecht, in particular, developed at that time into strongholds for the supporters of Harvey’s theory of blood circulation and the philosophy of Descartes, from where those supporters spread the ideas that gradually found acceptance elsewhere as well. Witte was fortunate to have a closeup view of the fierce opposition between supporters and opponents of the philosophy of Descartes. Witte defended three disputations, two of which exercitii causa. The first was at Leiden on abdominal dropsy in 1645, the second was at Franeker on arthritis in 1647. He defended his doctoral dissertation on the plague at Leiden in 1648. Witte’s views on physiology were pioneering in all of his disputations. Under the apparent influence of his teacher Johannes Walaeus, Witte considered the teaching of blood circulation to be self-evident. Blood circulation was not the specific object of his research but used in interpreting the internal causes of illnesses. Witte’s choice of sides was his dedication of his disputation of 1645 to Descartes and his closest friends and public supporters. This was a very bold move, considering the conditions of those times. Yet this probably did not derive so much from Witte’s passion for Cartesian philosophy but rather from the fact that all those individuals were at the same time also supporters of the theory of blood circulation. Witte had negative attitude towards authorities considered to be infallible, whether they be authors from antiquity or more recent authors. Thus he distanced himself from the supporters of both Galen and Paracelsus, considering them rival sects. Witte distanced himself in his disputations from both Galen’s teaching of four bodily fluids, which was still widely accepted at that time, and the teaching of the movement of blood and of the liver as the centre for producing blood. Witte also denied the concepts of iatroastrology, iatromagic and iatrotheology associated primarily with the teachings of Paracelsus. Yet he did espouse the principle of three elements. And the learning of chemiatry

Contacts in natural sciences between Riga and England in 1660–1710 [Loodusteaduslikud kontaktid Riia ja Inglismaa vahel 1660–1710]

London became one of the most important centres for the natural sciences in the latter half of the seventeenth century. The sphere of influence of the Royal Society of London, as well as that of the first natural scientific periodical, the Philosophical Transactions, covered all of Europe through a network of fellows of the Society and of contributors to the periodical. This article examines the mutual contacts between persons interested in natural sciences in England as the centre of natural science and Riga as the centre of one of Europe’s peripheral regions. The main characters under scrutiny are Nicolaus Witte von Lilienau (1618–88) and David Krieg (about 1669–1710). Riga’s municipal physician Witte corresponded and exchanged books and objects with the treasurer of the Royal Society, Abraham Hill (1633–1721). Krieg, a doctor of German descent working in Riga, spent an entire year in England in the company of England’s naturalists, and went to the American colonies in 1698 to collect specimens of natural history. In 1699 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and corresponded until 1708 with the secretary of the Royal Society Hans Sloane and the collectionnaire James Petiver. Also, several doctoral candidates from Riga who ventured out on academic peregrinations after completing their university studies visited London. KEYWORDS: History of natural sciences, Royal Society of London, Philosophical Transactions, David Krieg, Nicolaus Witte von Lilienau, Rig

Otto Alexander Webermanni haud Göttingeni Linnakalmistul

https://www.ester.ee/record=b4052010*es

Skorbuuditeema Baltimaade arstide dissertatsioonides varasel uusajal [Scurvy as a topic of doctoral dissertations of Baltic physicians in the early modern period]

Scurvy was encountered oft en in the early modern era in connection with the absence of vitamin C on long sea journeys and in frequent wars. Even though the nature of the disease was not known, the effectiveness of foods and remedies rich in vitamin C became known through experience. Europe’s physicians nevertheless had only a vague idea of what scurvy was. Many other illnesses were thought to be scurvy due to the indefinite nature of its symptoms. Doctoral dissertations on scurvy were readily written and defended at European universities. As many as four physicians who later worked as doctors in the Baltic provinces did so as well in the latter half of the seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century: Benjamin Fischer and Conrad Rudolph Hertz who worked in Riga as military surgeons; Nicolaus Buchner, who was a doctor in Mitau (Jelgava), and Christian Ehrenfried Eschenbach, who worked for a time as a doctor in Tartu and later as a professor of medicine in Rostock. Of those dissertations, Nicolaus Buchner’s doctoral thesis drew upon his observations from his experience as a fi eld doctor with the German-Polish garrison in Dünamünde (Daugavgrīva) fortress, which was besieged by the Swedes during the Great Northern War in the latter half of 1701. His practical work as a doctor provided him with the opportunity to familiarize himself with all phases of the progress of scurvy. The causes of scurvy were generally thought to be the accumulation of salts resulting from the inhalation of salty sea air and the consumption of salted and smoked meat products, thus thickening the blood and leading to the afflictions of scurvy. Only Eschenbach’s position differed from the others. He maintained that the causes of this disease were more likely spoiled food and contaminated drinking water. The dissertations chiefly recommended agents promoting excretion, secretion and voiding (bloodletting, laxatives and medicines for inducing urination, perspiration and vomiting) as treatment for scurvy, as was usual at that time for the treatment of other illnesses as well, and medicines for cleansing the organism, some of which were toxic chemical preparations harmful to the organism. Yet among the recommended medicines were also some ten herbs that due to their content of vitamin C really did prove to be effective means for preventing and alleviating scurvy. Such herbs were scurvy grass (cochlearia), water cress (nasturtium), cress (lepidium), horseradish (raphanus rusticus), lemon juice (succus citri), pine shoots or fir shoots (summitates pinii vel abietis), garlic (allium) and onion (allium gepa). The authors of all four dissertations agreed on the positive effect of some of the substances listed above. Th is means that the practice in treating this disease that had evolved over generations was a step ahead of medical theories. Keywords: history of medicine, scurvy, early modern dissertations, Baltic provinces. Arvo Tering (b. 1949) is a Senior Researcher at the Tartu University Library. Correspondence: Tartu University Library, W. Struve 1, Tartu 50091, Estonia. E-mail: [email protected]