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Last updated: 2010-11-25

ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS

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Dějiny věd a techniky, No. 1, Vol. XLIII (2010)

PAPERS

DVT 101, 1
Renaissance Physician Georg Handsch (1529–1578)
Renesanční lékař Georg Handsch (1529–1578)
Josef Smolka – Marta Vaculínová

Physician Georg Handsch, a German from northern Bohemia, represents a nearly unknown though interesting personality of the late Renaissance. The paper follows his varied life: his first school years; his arrival in Prague; his activities in the circle of Prague humanists; the time when he was a pupil of Prague physicians U. Lehner and A. Gallus; his study in Padua, where he gained his liking for floral studies; his being ennobled; and his fruitless attempts to establish his own medical practice. An important turn in his life came when he entered service to Mattioli. Thanks to that experience, he came to the court of the Bohemian governor Ferdinand von Tirol. Handsch was dealing there at first with the German translation of Mattioli’s herbarium that was issued in Prague in 1563. Later he accompanied Ferdinand as his personal physician to Tirol, where he was devoted not only to medicine but also to zoology and where he lived until nearly the end of his life. The appendix includes the Czech translation of a letter in which Handsch addressed Mattioli and offered him his services.

Renaissance Arzt Georg Handsch (1529–1578)
Der Arzt Georg Handsch, ein nordböhmischer Deutsche, stellt eine fast unbekannte, trotzdem aber interessante Persönlichkeit unserer Spätrenaissance, dar. Die vorliegende Studie verfolgt schrittweise seinen bunten Lebenslauf: seine ersten Schuljahre, die Ankunft in Prag, seine Wirkung in dem Kreise der Prager Humanisten, die Lehrjahre bei den Prager Ärzten U. Lehner und A. Gallus, sein Studium in Padua, woher er seine Vorliebe zu dem floristischen Studium mitgebracht hat, seine Nobilitation, vergebliche Versuche um eine eigene Praxis. Zu einem wesentlichen Bruch in seinem Leben kommt in dem Moment, wenn er in die Dienste von Mattioli eintreten kann und dadurch an dem Hofe des böhmischen Statthalters Ferdinand von Tirol erscheint. Zuerst befasst er sich mit der deutschen Übersetzung des Herbariums von Mattioli, die im Jahre 1563 in Prag erscheint. Später begleitet er Ferdinand als sein Leibarzt nach Tirol, wo er sich neben der Medizin auch der Zoologie widmet, und wo er fast zum seinem Tod lebt. Im Anhang wird ein interessanter Brief aus dem handschriftlichen Nachlass von Handsch ins Tschechische übersetzt, in dem er sich an Mattioli wendet und ihm seine Dienste anbietet.

Key words:
Georg Handsch ● Medicine of the Late Renaissance ● Mattioli ● Prague Translations of his Herbarium ● Botany


DVT 101, 27
Otakar Šulc – the First Czech Physical Chemist
Otakar Šulc – první český fyzikální chemik
Jiří Jindra

The article describes the life, scientific works, and popularizing activities of Otakar Šulc (1869–1901).

Key words:
Czech physical chemistry ● 1889–1900 ● habilitation on the Technical University in Prague


COMMUNICATION

DVT 101, 38
On Scientometric Evaluation in Science and Humanities
Ke scientometrickému hodnocení ve vědě
Petr Hadrava

The rating of scientific journals by means of scientometric criteria was recently criticized and rejected in a common editorial published in several journals dealing with the history and philosophy of science, technology, and medicine. The present contribution discusses the analogous practice of evaluating individuals and institutions in science and the humanities. The article concludes that such a methodology is often misleading. Its application to a straightforward decision about financial support of science now being promoted in the Czech Republic has serious consequences and must be strongly opposed.

Key words:
scientometry ● evaluation ● science policy


DVT 101, 45
The Struggle for Life in the Problem of Heredity
Z historie dědičnosti před Mendelovým příchodem do Brna
Vítězslav Orel

At the XXIIth yearly meeting of the Sheep Breeder’s Association in Brno in 1836, J. K. Nestler, professor of agriculture and natural science, proposed a pressing question about the inheritance capacity of the noble stock animal. According to F. C. Napp, abbot of the Augustinian monastery, the offspring of selected sheep are the product of a life-and-death struggle between rams for selected ewes. In 1859 Ch. Darwin explained the struggle for life in natural selection and the origin of species. Napp’s idea of the struggle for life and death is explained in the context of G. Mendel’s 1865 explanation of the law of the formation and development of hybrids.

Key words:
physiological research ● problem of heredity ● struggle for life and death between rams in selected sheep in 1836



© M. Barvík 2008