Türck, Ludwig

SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology

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b. 22 July 1810 Vienna, Austria

d. 25 February 1868 Vienna, Austria

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Austrian neurologist, developer of the techniques of laryngoscopy.

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The son of a wealthy jeweller, he attended medical school in Vienna and qualified in 1836. Until 1844 he was engaged in research into the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. In 1844, while on a visit to Paris, he came to the attention of Baron Türckheim, Director of the General Hospital in Vienna. The consequence was the establishment of a special division of the hospital for nervous diseases, with Türck in charge.

In 1857 he was appointed Chief Physician to the largest hospital in Vienna and at the same time he became aware of the invention in 1855 by Manuel García, a music teacher of Paris, of a practical laryngoscope. Türck adapted the apparatus to clinical purposes and proceeded to establish the diagnostic and therapeutic techniques required for its efficient use. Some conflict over priority ensued following a publication by Johann Nepomuk Czermak in 1858, but eventually a professional declaration asserted Türck's priority.

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Bibliography

1862, Recherches cliniques sur diverses maladies du larynx, de la trachée et du pharynx étudiées à l'aide du laryngoscope, Paris.

Papers in Allgemein. Wien. med. Zeit. 1856–68.

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