Complete record - Heirs of Hippocrates

Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 702

FRIEDRICH HOFFMANN (1660-1742) Opera omnia physico-medica. Apud fratres De Tournes 1740 Front. (port.). 35.4 cm.

Hoffmann, son of a prominent German physician, studied medicine at Jena, did postgraduate work in Holland, and then went to England where he worked with Robert Boyle. He practiced for a time at Halberstadt and in 1964 was appointed professor of medicine at the newly founded University of Halle. He spent several years as a physician to Frederick I of Prussia but disliked court life and soon returned to his old activities at Halle. Hoffmann was a prolific writer and in this work provides a comprehensive view of the medicine of his day. He was the chief designer of the mechanico-dynamic system, in which health is conceived of as normal movement and disease as disturbed movement. Hoffmann based his treatment on the use of sedatives, tonics, alteratives, and evacuants, according to the condition responsible for causing the disease. Apart from his system, Hoffmann was one of the premier practitioners of his day and one of the first to give good descriptions of appendicitis, chlorosis, rubella, and convulsive asthma with dropsy. He also wrote treatises on such subjects a pediatrics, physiology, pathology, medical ethics, and personal hygiene.

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 72; Waller 4814-4816 (1761 ed.); Wellcome III, p. 285

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