Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, mathematician, inventor, and correspondent of Spinoza, is often thought to have studied medicine at Leiden, though documentation of this fact has been lacking. Tschirnhaus’ medical education is here documented, along with the nature of his medical practice.
Gent PV. Briefe an Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. Reinhardt C (ed). Freiberg: Gerlachsche Buchdruckerei, 1911, p.11 (editor's note).
2.
KleverWNA. Mannen rond Spinoza, 1650–1700: Presentatie van een Emanciperende Generatie, Hilversum: Verloren, 1997, pp. 165–165.
3.
Gullan-WhurM. Within reason: a life of Spinoza, New York: St. Martin's, 2000, pp. 269–269.
4.
ZaunickR. Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, Dresden: Hellerau, 2001, pp. 7–7.
5.
MühlpfordtG. Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (1651–1708): zu seinem 300. Todestag am 11. Oktober 2008, Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2008, pp. 16–16.
6.
FaroukiRAMT. Pythagorean-hodograph curves: algebra and geometry inseparable, Berlin: Springer, 2008, pp. 393–393.
7.
WinterEDer Bahnbrecher der deutschen Frühaufklärung E. W. von Tschirnhaus und die Frühaufklärung in Mittel- und Osteuropa. In: WinterE (eds). EW von Tschirnhaus und die Frühaufklärung in Mittel- und Osteuropa, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1960, pp. 6–6.
8.
For example, see Hofmann JE. Tschirnhaus, Ehrenfried Walther. In: Gillispie CC (ed). Complete dictionary of scientific biography. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008, vol. 13, pp.479–481.
9.
North Dakota State University, Department of Mathematics. Mathematics Genealogy Project. Ehrenfried Walter [sic] von Tschirnhaus, http://www.genealogy.ams.org/id.php?id=113719 (accessed 3 October 2011).
10.
MeinsmaKO. Spinoza en zijn kring: Historisch-kritische studien over hollandsche vrijgeesten, ‘s-Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff, 1896, pp. 383–383.
11.
Vermij R. De Nederlandse vriendenkring van E.W. von Tschirnhaus. Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenis der Geneeskunde, Natuurwetenschappen, Wiskunde en Techniek 1988, vol. 11, pp.153–178, 154n.
12.
For an exception, see O'Connor JJ and Robertson EF. Ehrenfried Walter [sic] von Tschirnhaus, http://www.gap-system.org/history/Biographies/Tschirnhaus.html (accessed 3 October 2011) where it is stated that he ‘seems not to have had much of an interest in that topic'.
13.
VermijR. Le Spinozisme en Holland: le cercle de Tschirnhaus. Cahiers Spinoza1991; 6: 145–168, 154.
[Tschirnhaus GAV.] Elogium Ehrenfridi Waltheri a Tschirnhaus. Acta Eruditorum 1709;1:41–48, p. 42. (For attribution of authorship, see Vermij R [op. cit. ref. 13], p.146n4).
GabbeyASpinoza’s natural science and methodology. In: GarrettD (ed.). The Cambridge companion to Spinoza, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 168–168.
21.
Eloy NFJ. Tschirnhausen, Erfroi-Wautier de. In: Eloy NFJ (ed) Dictionnaire historique de la médecine, anciènne et moderne. 2nd ed. Mons: Hoyois, 1778, vol. 4, p. 440. Note that in quotations from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century works the obsolete forms and spellings have been retained without comment except in cases where the reader might suspect a typographical or transcription error.
22.
Eloy NFJ (op. cit. ref. 21), vol. 1, pp. x–xi.
23.
The German title is rather hard to translate, meaning something like ‘The Art of Skilful Medicine' or ‘The Art of Accurate Medicine'. Compare the many senses of the word curious – especially the archaic and obsolete ones – listed in the Oxford English Dictionary. See especially this example: ‘Curious Dissections cannot be made without variety of proper Instruments'. The basic meaning stems from the Latin root, cura, meaning ‘care'.
24.
Boerhaave H, Haller AV and Pereboom C. Methodus Studii Medici. Amsterdam: Sumptibus Jacobi a Wetstein, 1751, vol. 2, 914.
25.
LindeboomGA. Herman Boerhaave: the man and his work1968; Vol. 50, London: Methuen, pp. 14–14.
26.
Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15).
27.
Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15), p. 16.
28.
It appears that such accusations were in fact levelled against Tschirnhaus. Elias Camerarius, in the introduction to his critique of Tschirnhaus’ Medicina Corporis, writes, ‘Far indeed be it from me to be so wicked as to suppose that a man who, as the saying is, does not practise medicine as a recognized professional should have abstained from such a useful and noble task…’ (‘Absit verò ut tam sim iniquus, atque existimem Virum professa, quod ajunt, opera Medicinam non facientem abstinere debuisse à labore tam utili ac præclaro… ’) (Camerarius E. In Medicinam Corporis Tschirnhusianam Annotationes Succinctae. In: Camerarius E. Medicinae Conciliatricis Conamina Quaedam ac Primae Lineae. Francofurti ad Moenum: Apud Joh. Maximiliani à Sande, 1714, p.164). Camerarius would hardly have needed to write such a thing if there had not been others who did criticise Tschirnhaus for that reason. Such a criticism can in fact be found in a letter of Leibniz who rather gently suggests that Tschirnhaus’ work could benefit from further reflection and would have had more credibility if it had come from the pen of a learned and non-partisan physician: see Leibniz GW. Letter to Jakob Thomasius, October 1694. In: Leibniz GW. Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe. Berlin Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, eds. Series 3, vol. 6. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2004,: Letter 64.
29.
‘Statesman' here translates the German politicus, which might also be translated as ‘politician' though hardly in the current sense of that word.
30.
Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15), pp. 16–17.
31.
Reinhardt C. Beiträge zur Lebensgeschichte von EW v Tschirnhaus. Jahresbericht der Fürsten- und Landesschule St. Afra in Meissen 1903;15:4.
32.
Erdmann JE. A history of philosophy. 3 vols. Hough WS, translator. London: Sonnenschein, and New York: Macmillan, 1890–1892, vol. 2, p.204.
33.
IsraelJI. Radical enlightenment, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 637–637.
34.
This communication was personal and hence the name of the correspondent is omitted.
35.
The Karlsruher virtueller Katalog lists three copies of Der curiösen Medicin zweyter Theil, one each in Augsburg, Dresden and Leipzig.
36.
Fontenelle BLDB. Éloge de Mr. Tschirnhaus. Mémoires pour l'histoire des sciences et des beaux-arts 1710;38:151–159, 158.
37.
Fontenelle BLDB. The character of M Tschirnaus [sic], Late Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences. In: Roche MDL (ed) Memoirs of literature, 2nd ed., 8 vols. London: R Knaplock and P Vaillant, 1722, vol. 1, p.28.
38.
Fontenelle BLDB. Eloge de Monsieur de Tschirnhaus. In: Histoire du renouvellement de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, 2 vols. Paris: Chez Michel Brunet, 1717, vol. 2, pp.35–64, p. 61.
Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15), pp. 8, 12, 24.
42.
Morhof DG. De Ratione Conscribendarum Epistolarum Libellus. Lübeck: Apud Petrum Bockmannum, 1716, 141, 127. Longinus C. Liber de Grandi, sive Sublimi Orationis Genere. Basil: Per Ioannem Oporinum, [1554]. Longolius C. Epistolarum Libri Quatuor, Tullianae Scilicet Eloquentiae ad Unguem Expressam Imago. Basil: Apud Ioannem Valderum, 1533. ‘Christophorus Longolius' is the Latinised name of Christophe Longueil.
43.
Frijhoff W. Medical education and early modern Dutch medical practitioners: towards a critical approach. In: Marland H, Pelling M (eds) The task of healing: medicine, religion, and gender in England and the Netherlands, 1450–1800. Rotterdam: Erasmus, 1996, 220n19.
44.
Mooij A. Doctors of Amsterdam. Jackson B, translator. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2002, p.45,48; Lebrun F. Se soigner autrefois. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1995, pp.93–98.
45.
Eloy NFJ (op. cit. ref. 21), vol. 4, 441.
46.
Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15), pp. 4–8.
47.
Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15), pp. 17, 67. Compare Albert Kyper’s statement ‘A learned doctor is a bad practitioner', quoted in French RK. Medicine before Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p.187.
48.
French RK (op. cit. ref. 47), p. 188.
49.
HuismanF. Itinerant medical practitioners in the Dutch Republic: the case of Gröningen. Tractrix1989; 1: 63–83.
50.
The ambiguity of the status of ‘doctor' and the toleration of unlicensed practitioners are hardly unique to the distant past, and a comparison of recent examples may be useful. In the state of Arkansas, USA, where the author resides, until 2010 a licensed acupuncturist, even in the absence of an earned doctorate from an academic institution, was legally entitled to call himself a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, a title conferred by the State: see the Rules and Regulations of the Arkansas Board of Acupuncture and Related Techniques as of 14 January 2010, accessed 20 February 2012 at http://web.archive.org/web/20100323054835/http://www.asbart.org/rules.htm, §I.A.8. Now, and quite to the contrary, apparently it is illegal for an acupuncturist to refer to himself as a doctor even when he does possess an earned doctorate: see the Arkansas Code Annotated, revised as of 16 November 2011, §17–102-104(c) and Dustin McDaniel, Attorney General Opinion No. 2010-137 at http://ag.arkansas.gov/opinions/docs/2010-137.pdf (accessed 16 March 2012). Regarding unlicensed practitioners in the same area of the country, Vance Randolph, writing in the 1930s, states ‘[r]egular physicians are not very numerous in the Ozarks, and a great number of unaccredited persons are practising illegally, encouraged rather than hindered by the authorities', these practitioners often being, much like Tschirnhaus, ‘men who have had a year or two of training at some… medical college' and often referred to as doctors despite their lack of a degree (Randolph V. The Ozarks: an American survival of primitive society. New York: Vanguard Press, 1931, p.94).
51.
Dictionnaire universel françois et latin, vulgairement appelé Dictionnaire de Trévoux. Nouvelle édition. 8 vols. Paris: Par la Compagnie des Libraires Associés, 1771, vol. 5, p.902. ‘Iatraliptic' practitioners are those who attempt to cure by means of anointing and friction.
52.
Leibniz GW. Epistola 45. In: Spinoza B, Gebhardt C (ed) Spinoza opera Heidelberg: Carl Winters, [1925], vol. 4, p.231.
53.
Christoph PR. Barber-Surgeons in New Netherland and Early New York. In: Shattuck MD (ed) Explorers, fortunes and love letters: a window on new Netherland. Albany, NY: New Netherland Institute, 2009, p.60. For a similar situation in England several decades later, see Corfield PJ. Power and the professions in Britain, 1700–1850. London: Routledge, 1999, p.140.
