Ignatz Leo Nascher
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New York University
Ignatz Leo Nascher | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 11 October 1863 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | 25 December 1944 (aged 81) New York City, United States |
| Alma mater | New York College of Pharmacy New York University |
| Occupation | Physician |
| Employer | New York Department of Hospitals |
| Known for | Study of geriatrics |
| Notable work | Geriatrics: The Diseases of Old Age and Their Treatment |
| Spouse | Augusta Lanzit (married 1886–1943) |
| Children | 2 |
Ignatz Leo Nascher (11 October 1863 – 25 December 1944) was an Austrian-American medical doctor and gerontologist. He coined the term "geriatrics" in 1909.[1]
Born in Vienna, Nascher immigrated to the United States at a young age. He graduated from Columbia University and received an M.D. from New York University. After more than two decades in private practice, Nascher began publishing his ideas on geriatrics. His theories, initially published in the New York Medical Journal, helped lay the groundwork for the modern study of ageing and elder care. In later life, Nascher worked for the city of New York as a medical administrator and attempted to put some of his ideas into effect.
As he aged, Nascher studied and described his and his wife's medical issues. In 1942, Nascher was elected in an honorary role as the first president of the American Geriatrics Society, and died in 1944. Gerontologist A.M. Clarfield wrote in 1990 that Nascher was "a pioneer and a prophet, a man clearly ahead of his time."[2]
Nascher was born in Vienna, Austria on 11 October 1863.[3][4] Immigrating to the US with his family as an infant, he was raised in a New York City tenement without hot water.[4][5]
Nascher first attended City College and subsequently transferred to the New York College of Pharmacy, which would become part of Columbia University.[4] In 1882, at the age of 19, he graduated with a degree in pharmacy. Three years later, he received his M.D. from New York University.[4][6] He began his career in private practice, first at Mount Sinai hospital and subsequently opening his own practice.[5][6] Nascher and his wife, Augusta Lanzit, were married in 1886. They had two children—Eugene, born 1887, and Ansel, born in 1890.[7] Nascher was a lifelong Democrat and attended every inauguration of a Democratic president between 1885 (Cleveland) and 1936 (Roosevelt's second).[8]
Little is known of his time in private practice, although he did publish at least two journal articles, one focusing on embryology (1889) and the other on prostitution (1908).[4][5] Nascher also wrote a book focused on urban poverty, The Wretches of Povertyville: A Sociological Study of the Bowery, published in 1909.[4] Nascher's work contained the argument (described as a "typical example" of racist attitudes of the time by academic Mara Keire) that opium addiction was required for white prostitutes to find sex with Chinese-American johns endurable.[9]
