View source for Julius Wagner-Jauregg

{{Short description|Austrian physician and nobelist (1857–1940)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              =
| native_name       =
| native_name_lang  =
| image             = Julius Wagner-Jauregg ohne Unterschrift.jpg
| image_size        = 200px
| alt               =
| caption           = Julius Wagner-Jauregg with his signature
| birth_name        = Julius Wagner
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1857|03|07|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Wels]], [[Austrian Empire]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1940|09|27|1857|03|07|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Vienna]], [[Nazi Germany]]
| resting_place     =
| resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline,title}} -->
| other_names       = Julius Wagner
| residence         =
| citizenship       =
| nationality       = Austrian
| fields            = [[Pathology]]<br>[[Psychiatry]]
| workplaces        = [[University of Vienna]]<br>[[University of Graz]]<br>State Lunatic Asylum at Steinhof
| patrons           =
| alma_mater        = [[University of Vienna]]
| thesis_title      = L'origine et la fonction du coeur accélére (Origin and function of the accelerated heart)
| thesis_url        =
| thesis_year       = 1880
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Salomon Stricker]]
| academic_advisors =
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| notable_students  =
| known_for         = [[Malariotherapy]]
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| influences        =
| influenced        =
| awards            = [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] {{small|(1927)}}<br> [[Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh]] {{small|(1935)}}
| website           = <!-- {{URL|www.example.com}} -->
| footnotes         =
| spouse            = Balbine Frumkin (divorced 1903)<br>Anna Koch (married 1899)
| children          = Julia and Theodor
| signature         = Signature of Julius Wagner-Jauregg.jpg
| signature_alt     =
}}
'''Julius Wagner-Jauregg''' ({{IPA|de|ˈjuːli̯ʊs ˈvaːɡnɐ ˈjaʊʁɛk|lang}}; 7 March 1857 – 27 September 1940) was an Austrian [[physician]], who won the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in 1927, and is the first psychiatrist to have done so. His Nobel award was "for his discovery of the therapeutic value of [[malariotherapy|malaria inoculation]] in the treatment of [[general paresis of the insane|dementia paralytica]]".<ref>{{cite web|title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1927|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1927/|work=Nobelprize.org|publisher=Nobel Media AB|access-date=20 March 2014}}</ref>
==Early life==
[[File:Ritter Wagner von Jauregg (1883) – Gerd Hruška.png|thumb|left|Wagner-Jauregg family arms, granted in 1883.]]
Julius Wagner-Jauregg was born '''Julius Wagner''' on 7 March 1857 in [[Wels]], [[Upper Austria]], the son of Adolph Johann Wagner and Ludovika Jauernigg Ranzoni.<ref name=PM>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Q7IjPkFIoz4C&dq=Julius+Wagner-Jauregg%2C+born&pg=PA170 "Physiology or medicine, 1922-1941"], Jan Lindsten. World Scientific, 1999. p. 170. {{ISBN|981-02-3410-4}}, {{ISBN|978-981-02-3410-2}}.</ref> His family name was changed to "Wagner von Jauregg" when his father was given the title of "[[Ritter]] von Jauregg" (a hereditary title of nobility) in 1883 by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Hence he retained the name Julius Wagner Ritter von Jauregg until 1918 when the empire was dissolved, and nobility was abolished. The family name was then contracted to "Wagner-Jauregg".<ref name=faqs>{{cite web|title=Julius Wagner-Jauregg Biography (1857-1940)|url=http://www.faqs.org/health/bios/63/Julius-Wagner-Jauregg.html|publisher=Advameg, Inc.|access-date=20 March 2014}}</ref> He attended the [[Schottengymnasium]] in Vienna before going on to study [[Medicine]] at the [[University of Vienna]] from 1874 to 1880, where he also studied with [[Salomon Stricker]] in the Institute of General and Experimental Pathology. He obtained his doctorate in 1880 with the thesis "L'origine et la fonction du cœur accéléré."<ref name=PM /> He left the institute in 1882.
After leaving the clinic, he conducted laboratory experiments with animals, which was practiced very little at this time.<ref name=PM /> From 1883 to 1887 he worked with [[Maximilian Leidesdorf]] in the Psychiatric Clinic, although his original training was not in the pathology of the nervous system. In 1889 he succeeded the famous [[Richard von Krafft-Ebing]] at the Neuro-Psychiatric Clinic of the [[University of Graz]], and started his research on [[Goitre]], [[cretinism]] and [[iodine]]. In 1893 he became Extraordinary Professor of Psychiatry and Nervous Diseases, and Director of the Clinic for Psychiatry and Nervous Diseases in [[Vienna]], as successor to [[Theodor Meynert]]. A student and assistant of Wagner-Jauregg during this time was [[Constantin von Economo]].
Ten years later, in 1902, Wagner-Jauregg moved to the psychiatric clinic at the General Hospital and in 1911 he returned to his former post.
==Criminal inquest==
Wagner-Jauregg was angered by what he considered as the [[malingering]] of soldiers who claimed to be too mentally upset to return to the battlefield. He applied extreme [[electric shock therapy]] to these soldiers, which caused large numbers of deaths. After the end of the war, the German government opened an inquest into these activities, with the goal of prosecuting him criminally. [[Sigmund Freud]] intervened to save Wagner-Jauregg's career.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scull |first1=Andrew T. |title=Madhouse: a tragic tale of megalomania and modern medicine |date=2005 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=978-0-300-10729-6 |page=87}}</ref>
==Nobel prize==
[[File:Pyrotherapy 1934 image.jpg|thumb|right|Wagner-Jauregg (center right in black jacket) watching a transfusion from a malaria patient (rear of the group) to a neurosyphilis victim (center) in 1934]]
The main work pursued by Wagner-Jauregg throughout his life was related to the treatment of [[mental disease]] by inducing a [[fever]], an approach known as [[pyrotherapy]]. In 1887 he investigated the effects of febrile diseases on [[psychoses]], making use of the streptococci that cause [[erysipelas]] and [[tuberculin]] (the latter discovered in 1890 by [[Robert Koch]]). Since these methods of treatment did not work very well, he tried in 1917 the inoculation of [[malaria]] parasites, which proved to be very successful in the case of dementia paralytica (also called [[general paresis of the insane]]), caused by [[neurosyphilis]], at that time a [[Terminal illness|terminal disease]].<ref>{{cite journal | author = Raju T | title = Hot brains: manipulating body heat to save the brain | doi= 10.1542/peds.2005-1934 | journal = Pediatrics | volume = 117 | issue = 2 | pages = e320–1 | year = 2006 | pmid = 16452338 |url=http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/117/2/e320| doi-access =  }}</ref> It had been observed that some who develop high fevers would be cured of syphilis. Thus, from 1917 to the mid 1940s, malaria induced by the least aggressive parasite, [[Plasmodium vivax]], was used as treatment for tertiary syphilis because it produced prolonged and high fevers (a form of pyrotherapy). This was considered an acceptable risk because the malaria could later be treated with quinine, which was available at that time. This discovery earned him the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Nobel Prize in Medicine]] in 1927. His main publication was a book titled ''Verhütung und Behandlung der progressiven Paralyse durch Impfmalaria'' (Prevention and treatment of progressive paralysis by malaria inoculation) in the Memorial Volume of the Handbuch der experimentellen Therapie, (1931).  The technique was known as [[malariotherapy]]; however, it was dangerous, killing about 15% of patients, so it is no longer in use.<ref>{{cite journal | journal = Science | author = Gretchen Vogel | title = Malaria as a Lifesaving Therapy | volume = 342 | page = 686 | date = 8 November 2013 | doi=10.1126/science.342.6159.686 | pmid=24202157 | issue=6159| bibcode = 2013Sci...342..686V }}<!--| access-date = 28 November 2013 --></ref>
In 1935, he was awarded the [[Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh]].
==Involuntary sterilizations==
{{Eugenics sidebar}}
==Retirement==
In 1928, Wagner-Jauregg retired from his post but remained active and in good health until his death on 27 September 1940. In his retirement he published nearly 80 scientific papers.<ref name=PM /> Many schools, roads and hospitals are named after him in Austria.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}
==Nazi ideology and affiliation==
Towards his last days Wagner-Jauregg was influenced by [[Adolf Hitler]]'s German nationalism, and became an [[anti-Semite]]<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=RvXzXnskJB4C&dq=Julius+Wagner-Jauregg,+racial&pg=PA20 "Shock therapy: a history of electroconvulsive treatment in mental illness"], Edward Shorter, David Healy. Rutgers University Press, 2007. p. 20. {{ISBN|0-8135-4169-7}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8135-4169-3}}.</ref> and sympathizer of Nazism.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=GqikfX_EDasC&dq=Julius+Wagner-Jauregg,+nazi&pg=PA86 "Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine"], Andrew Scull. Yale University Press, 2007. p. 86. {{ISBN|0-300-12670-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-300-12670-9}}.</ref> Documentary evidence indicates that he supported the [[Nazi Party]] shortly after the invasion of Austria in 1938 by Germany.<ref name=TM>[https://books.google.com/books?id=qXE4PvMIZsEC&dq=Julius+Wagner-Jauregg%2C+nazi%2C+1939&pg=RA1-PA295 "The Trials of Masculinity: Policing Sexual Boundaries, 1870-1930"], Angus McLaren. University of Chicago Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-226-50068-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-226-50068-3}}. Retrieved March 16, 2010.</ref><ref name=HP>[https://books.google.com/books?id=M49pEDoEpl0C&dq=Julius+Wagner-Jauregg%2C+nazi&pg=PA296 "A historical dictionary of psychiatry"], Edward Shorter. Oxford University Press US, 2005. p. 299. {{ISBN|0-19-517668-5}}, {{ISBN|978-0-19-517668-1}}</ref><ref name=CI>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7lYr4B1Rny8C&dq=Julius+Wagner-Jauregg%2C+nazi&pg=PA49 "The complete idiot's guide to understanding the brain"], Arthur Bard, Mitchell Geoffrey Bard. Alpha Books, 2002. p. 49. {{ISBN|0-02-864310-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-02-864310-6}}.</ref><ref name=JWJ>Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857-1940), Magda Whitrow. Smith-Gordon, 1993. p. 199. {{ISBN|1-85463-012-1}}, {{ISBN|978-1-85463-012-4}}.</ref> However, a [[denazification]] commission in Austria found that his application for NSDAP membership had been refused "...on grounds of race", as his first wife Balbine Frumkin was Jewish.<ref name=VM>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ARYNOecoznYC&dq=Julius+Wagner-Jauregg%2C+racial&pg=PA75 "Vienna: a doctor's guide : 15 walking tours through Vienna's medical history"], Wolfgang Regal, Michael Nanut. Springer, 2007. p. 75. {{ISBN|3-211-48949-5}}, {{ISBN|978-3-211-48949-9}}.</ref>
Wagner-Jauregg advocated a [[racial hygiene]] ideology called [[eugenics]],<ref name=VM /> influencing students such as [[Alexander Pilcz]], who went on to author a standard handbook on racial psychiatry critical of Jews for being prone to mental illness.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=xZbcZm3JXggC&dq=Julius+Wagner-Jauregg%2C+racial&pg=PA105 "Love+marriage: and other essays on representing difference"], Sander L. Gilman. Stanford University Press, 1998. p.105-106. {{ISBN|0-8047-3262-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8047-3262-8}}.</ref>
He was also an advocate of forced sterilization of the mentally ill and criminal,<ref name=CI /> having endorsed the concept in 1935 while a member of the Austrian Anthropological Society.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=SxwuEeIxLvkC&dq=Wagner-Jauregg%2C+sterilization&pg=PA101 "Interwar Vienna: Culture Between Tradition and Modernity"], Deborah Holmes, Lisa Silverman. Camden House, 2009. p. 101. {{ISBN|1-57113-420-4}}, {{ISBN|978-1-57113-420-2}}.</ref>
He was President of the Austrian League for Racial Regeneration and Heredity, which advocated sterilization for those of inferior genetics.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=0KTnnMbMGFAC&dq=Wagner-Jauregg%2C+sterilization&pg=PA105 "Freud's foes: psychoanalysis, science, and resistance"], Kurt Jacobsen. Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. p. 105. 0742522636, 9780742522633.</ref>
==See also==
{{Portal|Psychiatry}}
*[[Wilhelm Reich]]
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==Further reading==
* Magda Whitrow. ''Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857–1940)''. London: Smith-Gordon, 1993.
* Neugebauer, Wolfgang / Scholz, Kurt / Schwarz, Peter (Hrsg.), ''Julius Wagner-Jauregg im Spannungsfeld politischer Ideen und Interessen - eine Bestandsaufnahme. Beiträge des Workshops vom 6./7. November 2006 im Wiener Rathaus'' (Frankfurt am Main u.a., Peter Lang, 2008) (Wiener Vorlesungen: Forschungen, 3).
==External links==
* {{commons category-inline}}
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture on December 13, 1927 ''The Treatment of Dementia Paralytica by Malaria Inoculation''
* [http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/world/Austrians-stunned-by-Nobel-prizewinners.2497657.jp Nazi past]
{{Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1926-1950}}
{{1927 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner-Jauregg, Julius}}
[[Category:1857 births]]
[[Category:1940 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Wels]]
[[Category:Greater German People's Party politicians]]
[[Category:Austrian neuroscientists]]
[[Category:Austrian psychiatrists]]
[[Category:Austrian eugenicists]]
[[Category:Austrian Nazis]]
[[Category:Austrian neo-Nazis]]
[[Category:Austrian Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates from Austria-Hungary]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine]]
[[Category:Malariologists]]
[[Category:Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery]]
[[Category:20th-century Austrian scientists]]
[[Category:Psychiatrists from Austria-Hungary]]