Baron Karl RokitanskyBorn 19 Feb 1804; died 23 Jul 1878 at age 74.Austrian pathologist whose contributions helped to establish pathology as a recognised science. He is one of the greatest descriptive pathologists, and he himself performed more than 30,000 autopsies, averaging two a day, seven days a week, for 45 years. Rokitansky developed a method of removing the body organs all at once. Thus, the heart, liver, kidneys, urinary bladder, and other organs remained in one block and then dissected on the autopsy table, apart. This permited instruction of medical students by showing all the different organs in the same relationships they had inside the body. He supported Semmelweis, his student, in the controversy over using aseptical methods to prevent contact infection carried on a physician's hands.« |
