Ignaz Döllinger

Döllinger was born in 1770 in Bamberg, where his father Ignaz (1721-1800) was a professor at the university and physician to the Prince-Bishop Franz Ludwig von Erthal. His mother Magdalena (1737–1801) was the daughter of a church official Ignaz Flöckher (1701–63). He commenced his studies in his native town and went to the University of Bamberg to study natural sciences. He shifted to medicine continuing in Würzburg, Pavia and Vienna before returning to Bamberg. Soon after gaining his doctorate in 1794, he worked as a physician in Bamberg and two years later he became professor for physiology and general pathology in Bamberg, but was called to a professorship of anatomy and physiology at University of Würzburg in 1803 as the successor to the former city doctor, physiologist and natural philosopher Johann Joseph Dömling (1771–1803). In 1823 he moved to Munich (to the Academy, as the University was still in Landshut at this time) as a successor to Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring. When the University finally moved to the capital, he transferred there. His best known students were Louis Agassiz,^[1] Karl Ernst von Baer, Lucas Schönlein, Christian Heinrich von Pander, Lorenz Oken and Philipp Franz von Siebold. He was also an influence on the embryologist Louis Sébastien Tredern de Lézérec.^[2] In 1836 he was in charge of dealing with a cholera epidemic and he too was affected. He died in Munich after bleeding internally from a stomach ulcer.^[3][4]

Döllinger's importance comes from his contributions to the understanding of human development and comparative anatomy, based on his knowledge in all areas of morphology and physiology. He was one of the first workers to perceive and treat medicine as a natural science – his work on the circulation of blood, secretory processes and the first stages of embryological development are exemplary here. At the same time, he was aware that simply collecting scientific facts was just as ineffective as pure speculation, and it was because of this attitude that he is considered a natural philosopher.^[5] He became interested in embryology and the ideas of Caspar Wolff that broke away from older ideas of preformation. He conducted experiments with his students Karl von Baer, Christian Heinrich von Pander, and others, making use of novel techniques including artificial incubation. He encouraged the use of microscopic observations and made improvements to instruments with Joseph von Fraunhofer and Georg Merz.^[3][4]