The education of Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (1651

Abstract

Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, mathematician, inventor, and correspondent of Spinoza, is often thought to have studied medicine at Leiden, though documentation of this fact has been lacking. Tschirnhaus’ medical education is here documented, along with the nature of his medical practice.

Keywords

Tschirnhaus education Spinoza University of Leiden alternative medicine

According to some sources one of Spinoza’s correspondents, the mathematician and inventor Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, studied medicine (among other subjects) at the University of Leiden.^1–6 Others state he studied mathematics, philosophy and natural science as well.⁷ One writer claims that Tschirnhaus enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine in 1669.⁷ Some specify that he had studied under Frans dele Boë Sylvius, one of the most prominent Professors of Medicine.⁸ One goes so far as to say that, having studied under Sylvius, Tschirnhaus was awarded the degree of MD in 1674.⁹

However, these authors do not quote primary sources to support their claims. The only verifiable datum generally cited is that Tschirnhaus enrolled as a student of Law in 1669, a fact attested in the still-extant records of the University of Leiden,^10,11 but most sources suggest (by omission) that he devoted little time to this pursuit.¹² The one author who is very careful to cite primary sources claims that, beyond this, nothing is known about Tschirnhaus’ studies at Leiden.^13,14 Yet the claim, one might even say the rumour, that Tschirnhaus studied medicine is so persistent that it is hard to dismiss out of hand.

Tschirnhaus published a medical work called Medicina Corporis but it is not convincing as the work of a medical doctor: it is, as Tschirnhaus himself says, based largely on his personal experience¹⁵ and it neither cites standard medical works nor employs much medical terminology;¹⁶ in short, it gives the appearance of being the work of a medical autodidact.

The unreliability of the secondary sources may be gauged by the statement in the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography that Tschirnhaus studied with the philosopher Arnold Geulincx,⁸ a claim asserted repeatedly, as can readily be seen from an internet search for the names of Geulincx and Tschirnhaus.

That Tschirnhaus studied with Geulincx is most unlikely: Tschirnhaus arrived in Leiden at a time when the University was being devastated by a deadly plague that struck both Tschirnhaus and Geulincx, causing the former to delay his studies and proving fatal to the latter after Tschirnhaus arrived in Leiden but before he could begin his studies.^17,18

One is tempted to agree with the remark of Eduard Winter: ‘The further I penetrated into the literature and above all the primary sources, the greater was my surprise that so little attention has been paid to a man of this degree of cultural significance … ’¹⁹

More than mere idle curiosity or antiquarian perseverance prompts this inquiry into Tschirnhaus’ education. The presence of so many medical doctors in Spinoza's circle has interpretive significance: if doctors are inclined to interpret a statement in a certain way, and Spinoza knows that he is addressing an audience with a high proportion of doctors, then we are justified in giving weight to the doctors’ interpretation.

Alan Gabbey, for example, has proposed that we might understand Spinoza’s concept of the ‘ratio of motion and rest' as ‘possibly an ingenious neo-Cartesian reformulation of the traditional Galenic medical doctrine of humoral balance … ’²⁰ Gabbey, it should be noted, ultimately rejects his own suggestion, but the suggestion does gain weight on the interpretive principle just proposed. If we can confirm that Tschirnhaus had some sort of medical education, this interpretive principle gains more support, especially when one considers Tschirnhaus’ philosophical acuteness and close relationship with Spinoza.

The pursuit of knowledge

The only secondary source on Tschirnhaus that has even a slight indication of verifiability is the biography found in the second edition of NFJ Eloy’s Dictionnaire historique de la médecine, anciènne et moderne, where we read:

L’Auteur ne peut être accusé d’avoir traité une matière étrangère au plan de ses études, puisqu’il s’étoit appliqué à la Médecine à Leyde sous Sylvius & Drelincourt, qu’il y avoit même assidument fréquenté les Colleges Théorique & Pratique, & qu’il s’étoit encore lié à Dresde avec un Médecin qui lui avoit donné un libre accès dans sa Bibliotheque, pour y puiser les lumières nécessaires à la composition de l’Ouvrage qu’il se proposoit de mettre au jour.

(The Author cannot be accused of having treated a subject foreign to his plan of studies, for he had applied himself to the study of medicine at Leiden under [Frans dele Boë] Sylvius and [Charles] Drelincourt, and even assiduously attended the practical and theoretical classes, and was further associated in Dresden with a medical doctor who gave him free access to his library, so that he might find there the additional information needed for the work that he proposed to publish).²¹

Indeed Eloy does not cite sources for each biography but lists in his Preface the sources he used in composing the Dictionnaire (a practice that Eloy himself fears will give occasion for accusations of plagiarism).²² The reader who wants to track down the source of any part of Eloy’s information is forced to sift through the works listed there. Consulting this list, we find one source that Eloy might have used in composing his article on Tschirnhaus, namely, the Methodus Studii Medici of Herman Boerhaave (1751) where we read the following brief article on Tschirnhaus:

Ern. Walth. de Tschirnhausen medicina corporis, Lips. 1695. Inprimis ad diaetam respicit. Initia tamen etiam morborum docet profligare quiete perfecta & abstinentia & sudore spontaneo, rejectis medicis & medicamentis, quae nimis valida sunt, si cum corporis nostri fabrica conparentur. Idem opusculum prodiit germanice sub nomine der curiösen medicin anno 1705. & ejusdem zweyter theil, Luneburgi 1708. 12. * Suadet simplicissimos sanandi modos, neque diffitetur se sic satis usum esse Medicis, Sylvio in primis & Drelincourtio.

(Ern. Walth. de Tschirnhausen, Medicina Corporis, Leipzig 1695. Deals primarily with diet. He teaches that one can overcome the primary causes of diseases by complete rest, abstinence from food and voluntary sweating, and by rejecting doctors and medicines, which he considers too strong in comparison with the makeup of our body. The same work was published in German in 1705 under the title Die curiöse Medicin,²³ followed by Part Two [Zweyter Theil] of the same work [Lüneburg, 1708]. Duodecimo. * He recommends the simplest methods of healing, but does not thereby deny that he has sufficiently consulted the medical doctors – primarily Sylvius and Drelincourt.)²⁴

It is clear that this was one of Eloy’s sources: the second sentence of Boerhaave’s article is repeated with very little change on page 441 of Eloy’s. Again we find a reference to Sylvius and Drelincourt as Tschirnhaus’ teachers. But Boerhaave presents us with a dead end: he cites no sources. We could perhaps give him credence on the grounds that he, like Tschirnhaus, studied (and later taught) at Leiden, but he did not arrive there until long after Tschirnhaus was gone (Boerhaave in fact was born in 1668, the same year Tschirnhaus began his studies in Leiden).²⁵

Though we are still without a primary source, the articles on Tschirnhaus by Eloy and Boerhaave do provide us with a clue. In both cases one gets the impression that Tschirnhaus had to reply to critics who claimed that a work such as his Medicina Corporis could not be undertaken competently by someone without medical education. And there is indeed a work in which Tschirnhaus replies to criticisms of Medicina Corporis: it is his Der curiösen Medicin zweyter Theil: Darinnen die wichtigsten Objectiones wider den ersten Theil gründlich auffgelöset, und wie die Gesundheit durch leichte Mittel zu erhalten, fernerhin bekand gemacht wird,²⁶ a long title of which the relevant part might be translated as Medicina Corporis Part Two: In Which the Most Important Objections against the First Part are Thoroughly Resolved … (Die curiöse Medicin is the title given to the German translation of Medicina Corporis).

Tschirnhaus’ account of his education

This speculation turns out to be correct. Der curiösen Medicin zweyter Theil contains eight objections and replies. The first objection concerns precisely the accusation that Tschirnhaus’ lack of medical education made him unqualified to undertake the writing of such a book:

OBJECTION 1 … [The writing of such a book] would therefore not be a task for a single person, still less for a person who did not make medicine his profession, nor for a person who had not the slightest scientific knowledge of the foremost things that had already been discovered both in the theory and practice [of medicine].^27,28

To which Tschirnhaus offers the following reply:

I wasted no opportunity that I had to make progress in knowledge of the truth. Therefore, when I was at the Academy in Leiden, lodging with a physician, I jumped at this opportunity and – aside from my usual course of study of things necessary for a statesman²⁹ – I successfully completed not only a course on the fundamentals of medicine [Institutiones Medicinae] at the times [when it was taught] by the highly renowned Mr. [Frans dele Boë] Sylvius (as was common); but also a course in anatomy taught by the famous Mr. [Charles] Drelincourt, where clear instruction was given in everything that had then been discovered by the modern practitioners [Neoterici]. Moreover, I also there laid the foundation for the practice of medicine, so that I quite readily could write prescriptions, given the diagnostic signs of an illness … Thereafter, while traveling, I once again had the best opportunity to acquaint myself further with this field of study. After the completion of the above, whenever I had business at Court in these lands, I would lodge in the home of a famous medical practitioner, where I engaged in much conversation with him concerning these things and had free run of his beautiful library. For nothing excellent in the field of medicine can come forth quickly and without great diligence. Thus I have even continued such [study] up to the present.³⁰

Thus, Boerhaave and Eloy are correct in their descriptions of Tschirnhaus’ medical study. Indeed, Der curiösen Medicin zweyter Theil is probably the direct source of their information. This passage also shows, by the way, that Tschirnhaus’ enrolment in the Faculty of Law was not merely a matter of convenience by which he got his foot in the door of the University with the plan of studying other things: the phrase ‘study of things necessary for a statesman', by which he describes his major field of study, does seem like a good description of what one would learn in a faculty of law.

Tschirnhaus’ statement does not present itself as a complete description of his course of study. Those who state that at Leiden he studied mathematics and physics may well be correct for, as Tschirnhaus says, he ‘wasted no opportunity to make progress in the knowledge of truth' and it is hard to imagine that he would have neglected courses in those subjects; nevertheless, in Der curiösen Medicin zweyter Theil he is silent about those subjects.

Though we have learned a significant amount about Tschirnhaus’ education at Leiden and elsewhere, one puzzle remains: Why have so many authors been so hard-pressed to provide this information? Why did those who say something about his education not cite this source? One probable cause is the general neglect of Tschirnhaus, as noted above by E Winter, preceded by Carl Reinhardt, who lamented that Tschirnhaus had been completely forgotten, even in his home State of Saxony.³¹ And, obscure as Tschirnhaus was in general, his medical works had fallen into even greater obscurity. Johann Eduard Erdmann, the renowned historian of philosophy, devotes three dense pages to Tschirnhaus but dismisses the Medicina Corporis in a single sentence as being ‘of no importance'.³² So little known is the work in question that Jonathan Israel, generally a very accurate bibliographer, seems to think that Der curiösen Medicin zweiter Theil is merely a subsequent edition of the ersten Theil.³³ One researcher who works on Tschirnhaus remarked to the author in a personal communication that he ‘was under the impression that the Curioese Medicin did not even exist'.³⁴ And if, despite these discouraging circumstances, one wished to consult this obscure and little-valued book, one would have to track down one of apparently only three surviving copies, a difficult task in the pre-internet era.³⁵ If one succeeded in the search, one would find in his hands a text written in a convoluted German style peppered with Latin words which (so the author is told) even native speakers find difficult to penetrate. Even so, it is surprising that some dedicated researcher did not turn up the autobiographical pages of Der curiösen Medicin zweyter Theil. The explanation apparently is that we are dealing with invisible information: one ‘knew' that a book called Der curiösen Medicin zweyter Theil was not the place to look for biographical information on Tschirnhaus and so, evidently, no one looked there.

Tschirnhaus as medical practitioner

Of course, two courses in medicine and several years of independent study do not make one a doctor. Yet, as mentioned the rumour that Tschirnhaus was a doctor is remarkably persistent. This rumour goes back at least as far as one of his earliest biographers, Bernard de Fontenelle. Fontenelle wrote two brief posthumous biographies – ‘Éloges' - of Tschirnhaus. In one, delivered before the French Académie Royale des Sciences, we read about Tschirnhaus’ death:

Les Médecins ne trouvant pas en lui l'obéïssance qu'ils souhaitoient, parce qu'il étoit Médecin lui-même, l'abandonnérent [sic] bien-tôt, & il mourut l'onziéme [sic] Octobre suivant.³⁶

(The Doctors not finding that Compliance from him, they might expect, because he was a Physician himself, soon left him; and on the 11^th of October following, he gave up the Ghost).³⁷

These words were written within a year of Tschirnhaus’ passing, since his illness is described as striking him in ‘Septembre dernier' and their author was the Permanent Secretary of the Académie so we may take his words as reasonably reliable. So Fontenelle must have had some reason for calling him a physician. An interesting difference, however, occurs in the parallel passage from Fontenelle’s other Éloge:

Les Médecins qui ne le trouvoient pas assez obéïssant, parce qu'il s'étoit rendu Médecin lui-même, l'abandonnerent [sic] bientôt. Il se traita comme il l'entendit …

(The doctors, not finding him sufficiently compliant – for he on his own had made himself into a physician – soon abandoned him. He treated himself as he intended …)³⁸

This suggests that Tschirnhaus was a largely self-taught medical practitioner whose methods differed from those of the standard physicians. And this is exactly what we find in Der curiösen Medicin zweyter Theil. Tschirnhaus treated not only himself but others too. He relates how he treated colic, fever, pathological thirst and wounds.³⁹ His friend Pieter van Gent relates in a letter to Tschirnhaus that he (Gent) and Jarig Jelles (another correspondent of Spinoza) have discussed the remedy for kidney stones that Tschirnhaus recommends or uses. Their conclusion is that it is dangerous.⁴⁰ Tschirnhaus mentions frequently that his ‘method' differs from standard medical practice.⁴¹ The words of Camerarius (cited in note 28) help us flesh out the picture. He describes Tschirnhaus as ‘professa, quod ajunt, opera Medicinam non facientem', a phrase that calls for some scrutiny. It means, in a general way (as we have already mentioned), that Tschirnhaus did not practise medicine as a recognized professional. A closer look can help nail down the meaning more precisely. The phrase professa opera often means ‘in a work of that title'. Thus one might say (as does Daniel Georg Morhof) that Longinus discusses the sublime and Longolius emulates Tully professa opera, namely, Longinus in his De Grandi, sive Sublimi Genere Orationis and Longolius in his Tullianae Eloquentiae ad Unguem Expressam Imago.⁴² Thus, in the same way, one who practises medicine professa opera puts himself forth into the world under the title of some sort of medical practitioner or, to use the current phrase, he hangs out his shingle. Tschirnhaus, it seems, did not do so: he must have made his services available privately to friends and acquaintances. He would thus have flown beneath the radar of the authorities. If practising in the Netherlands, where he studied medicine, he would have been required to register with the relevant authorities only if he undertook to practise medicine openly.⁴³ If he had chosen to legalize his situation, he might have been able to do so, despite his lack of formal qualifications, by application to the city council; and even if he had attempted to practise openly as an unlicensed practitioner, he likely would have got away with it.⁴⁴

The situation can be imagined from the words of Boerhaave and Eloy. Boerhaave (quoted above) writes:

Initia tamen etiam morborum docet profligare quiete perfecta & abstinentia & sudore spontaneo, rejectis medicis & medicamentis, quae nimis valida sunt, si cum corporis nostri fabrica conparentur.

(He teaches that one can overcome the first causes of diseases by complete rest, abstinence from food and voluntary sweating, and by rejecting doctors and medicines, which he considers too strong in comparison with the makeup of our body).

And Eloy concludes with the following sardonic words:

Tels ont toujours été les Philosophes. Quand ils se sont mêlés de parler de Médecine, ils ont rarement évité les extrêmes.⁴⁵

(Philosophers have always been like this. When they have meddled in discussions of medicine, they have rarely avoided extremes).

Tschirnhaus then was what we would now call a practitioner of alternative medicine, comparable in some ways to contemporary naturopaths and to irregular medical practitioners of other times and places. He was scorned, as such practitioners often are, by some parts of the medical establishment, as evidenced by the quotations from Eloy and Boerhaave. There were, however, more open-minded physicians who approved, at least in part, of Tschirnhaus’ methods.⁴⁶

Was Tschirnhaus, then, a doctor? If by ‘doctor' one means (as today in the developed world) a person holding the degree of MD or equivalent, then he certainly was no doctor. He would probably have referred to himself as a practicus, a practitioner, a word he uses to describe others in the field, contrasting them with medici, physicians.⁴⁷ It was a time of conflict between officially approved medical doctors and practitioners of other sorts,⁴⁸ and who got to be called a doctor was (as now) at least partly a matter of politics. The situation was complex and boundaries unclear. As Frank Huisman writes,

It would be very misleading to depict the medical world of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in terms of legal and illegal medical practice. To treat the medical practitioners of that period as belonging to separate and autonomous spheres would do an injustice to the complexity of a world in which self-help, neighbourly help and (semi-) professional help existed side by side. Instead of speaking of well-defined professions it would be better to consider medical reality in the ancien regime as a network, in which boundaries were diffuse and competencies often overlapped.⁴⁹

As Huisman notes, the regular practitioners – medical doctors and licensed surgeons – alternately relied on, tolerated and tried to suppress the irregulars.^49,50 To judge by his medical writings, Tschirnhaus was in the etymological sense an empiric, namely one who heals on the basis of experience rather than of academic study; but by his time the word had acquired a pejorative connotation, implying that the practitioner was a quack.⁴⁹

It is perhaps a change in terminology that led to the idea that Tschirnhaus was a medical doctor. Fontenelle uses the word médecin to describe Tschirnhaus, and the famous Dictionnaire de Trévoux (edition of 1771) defines médecin as ‘One who has studied the nature of the human body and the maladies that affect it, and who makes a profession of curing them; who practises the art of restoring or maintaining health' (‘Celui qui a étudié la nature du corps humain, & des maladies qui lui arrivent, qui fait profession de les guérir; qui fait l'art de rendre, ou de conserver la santé'), no mention being made of an academic degree or licence; the definition goes on to list a large variety of médecins including astrological, botanical, cosmetic, ialatraliptic, magical and musical practitioners, as well as vulneraries, those who treat wounds. Those holding a university degree constitute only a subset of the médecins so defined.⁵¹ (Today, in the francophone world, a médecin would be expected to hold a Doctorate of Medicine and unlicensed practice would be illegal). Indeed, Leibniz honours Spinoza with the title of médecin, addressing a letter to him as medecin tres celebre [sic], though Spinoza was no medical doctor.⁵² If Spinoza could be called a médecin, surely one would not withhold the title from Tschirnhaus who actually did study and practise medicine. It is worth noting that the English translator of Fontenelle's Éloge refers to those who treated Tschirnhaus as doctors, implying an academic degree in medicine, but for Tschirnhaus himself he uses the term physician. Be that as it may, the title of ‘doctor' was often accorded to practitioners who had no such formal qualification.⁵³

We may summarize our conclusions: Tschirnhaus received serious medical training at Leiden and continued his study independently. He was no doctor, but rather an alternative medical practitioner. Even so, those who valued his medical learning may have thought of him, and even referred to him, as a physician or doctor.

In any case, doctor or not, Tschirnhaus seems to have had enough medical knowledge to count as one of the medically knowledgeable recipients of Spinoza’s philosophy.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Fokko Jan Dijksterhius, Corinna Dranow, Raymond Eichmann, Usula Goldenbaum, Graeme Hunter, Michael Korey, Daniel Levine and Mark Reynolds for their kind assistance in the preparation of this paper. The author also expresses his gratitude to the Interlibrary Loan Department of the University of Arkansas Libraries, without whom this work would not have been possible.

Jacob Adler is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He specializes in the study of the philosophy of Spinoza.

References

Gent PV. Briefe an Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. Reinhardt C (ed). Freiberg: Gerlachsche Buchdruckerei, 1911, p.11 (editor's note).

Klever

WNA

. Mannen rond Spinoza, 1650–1700: Presentatie van een Emanciperende Generatie, Hilversum: Verloren, 1997, pp. 165–165.

Gullan-Whur

. Within reason: a life of Spinoza, New York: St. Martin's, 2000, pp. 269–269.

Zaunick

. Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, Dresden: Hellerau, 2001, pp. 7–7.

Mühlpfordt

. Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (1651–1708): zu seinem 300. Todestag am 11. Oktober 2008, Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2008, pp. 16–16.

Farouki

RAMT

. Pythagorean-hodograph curves: algebra and geometry inseparable, Berlin: Springer, 2008, pp. 393–393.

Winter

Der Bahnbrecher der deutschen Frühaufklärung E. W. von Tschirnhaus und die Frühaufklärung in Mittel- und Osteuropa. In: Winter

(eds). EW von Tschirnhaus und die Frühaufklärung in Mittel- und Osteuropa, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1960, pp. 6–6.

For example, see Hofmann JE. Tschirnhaus, Ehrenfried Walther. In: Gillispie CC (ed). Complete dictionary of scientific biography. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008, vol. 13, pp.479–481.

North Dakota State University, Department of Mathematics. Mathematics Genealogy Project. Ehrenfried Walter [sic] von Tschirnhaus, http://www.genealogy.ams.org/id.php?id=113719 (accessed 3 October 2011).

10.

Meinsma

. Spinoza en zijn kring: Historisch-kritische studien over hollandsche vrijgeesten, ‘s-Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff, 1896, pp. 383–383.

11.

Vermij R. De Nederlandse vriendenkring van E.W. von Tschirnhaus. Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenis der Geneeskunde, Natuurwetenschappen, Wiskunde en Techniek 1988, vol. 11, pp.153–178, 154n.

12.

For an exception, see O'Connor JJ and Robertson EF. Ehrenfried Walter [sic] von Tschirnhaus, http://www.gap-system.org/history/Biographies/Tschirnhaus.html (accessed 3 October 2011) where it is stated that he ‘seems not to have had much of an interest in that topic'.

13.

Vermij

. Le Spinozisme en Holland: le cercle de Tschirnhaus. Cahiers Spinoza 1991; 6: 145–168, 154.

14.

Vermij R (op. cit. ref. 11). p.147.

15.

Tschirnhaus EWV. Der curiösen Medicin zweyter Theil. Lüneburg: Lipper, 1708, pp.12–14.

16.

Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15). pp. 17–18.

17.

[Tschirnhaus GAV.] Elogium Ehrenfridi Waltheri a Tschirnhaus. Acta Eruditorum 1709;1:41–48, p. 42. (For attribution of authorship, see Vermij R [op. cit. ref. 13], p.146n4).

18.

Ruler HV. Geulincx Biography, http://www.geulincx.org/biography/index.html (accessed 24 December 2010).

19.

Winter E (op. cit. ref. 7), p. 1.

20.

Gabbey

Spinoza’s natural science and methodology. In: Garrett

(ed.). The Cambridge companion to Spinoza, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 168–168.

21.

Eloy NFJ. Tschirnhausen, Erfroi-Wautier de. In: Eloy NFJ (ed) Dictionnaire historique de la médecine, anciènne et moderne. 2nd ed. Mons: Hoyois, 1778, vol. 4, p. 440. Note that in quotations from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century works the obsolete forms and spellings have been retained without comment except in cases where the reader might suspect a typographical or transcription error.

22.

Eloy NFJ (op. cit. ref. 21), vol. 1, pp. x–xi.

23.

The German title is rather hard to translate, meaning something like ‘The Art of Skilful Medicine' or ‘The Art of Accurate Medicine'. Compare the many senses of the word curious – especially the archaic and obsolete ones – listed in the Oxford English Dictionary. See especially this example: ‘Curious Dissections cannot be made without variety of proper Instruments'. The basic meaning stems from the Latin root, cura, meaning ‘care'.

24.

Boerhaave H, Haller AV and Pereboom C. Methodus Studii Medici. Amsterdam: Sumptibus Jacobi a Wetstein, 1751, vol. 2, 914.

25.

Lindeboom

. Herman Boerhaave: the man and his work 1968; Vol. 50, London: Methuen, pp. 14–14.

26.

Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15).

27.

Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15), p. 16.

28.

It appears that such accusations were in fact levelled against Tschirnhaus. Elias Camerarius, in the introduction to his critique of Tschirnhaus’ Medicina Corporis, writes, ‘Far indeed be it from me to be so wicked as to suppose that a man who, as the saying is, does not practise medicine as a recognized professional should have abstained from such a useful and noble task…’ (‘Absit verò ut tam sim iniquus, atque existimem Virum professa, quod ajunt, opera Medicinam non facientem abstinere debuisse à labore tam utili ac præclaro… ’) (Camerarius E. In Medicinam Corporis Tschirnhusianam Annotationes Succinctae. In: Camerarius E. Medicinae Conciliatricis Conamina Quaedam ac Primae Lineae. Francofurti ad Moenum: Apud Joh. Maximiliani à Sande, 1714, p.164). Camerarius would hardly have needed to write such a thing if there had not been others who did criticise Tschirnhaus for that reason. Such a criticism can in fact be found in a letter of Leibniz who rather gently suggests that Tschirnhaus’ work could benefit from further reflection and would have had more credibility if it had come from the pen of a learned and non-partisan physician: see Leibniz GW. Letter to Jakob Thomasius, October 1694. In: Leibniz GW. Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe. Berlin Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, eds. Series 3, vol. 6. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2004,: Letter 64.

29.

‘Statesman' here translates the German politicus, which might also be translated as ‘politician' though hardly in the current sense of that word.

30.

Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15), pp. 16–17.

31.

Reinhardt C. Beiträge zur Lebensgeschichte von EW v Tschirnhaus. Jahresbericht der Fürsten- und Landesschule St. Afra in Meissen 1903;15:4.

32.

Erdmann JE. A history of philosophy. 3 vols. Hough WS, translator. London: Sonnenschein, and New York: Macmillan, 1890–1892, vol. 2, p.204.

33.

Israel

. Radical enlightenment, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 637–637.

34.

This communication was personal and hence the name of the correspondent is omitted.

35.

The Karlsruher virtueller Katalog lists three copies of Der curiösen Medicin zweyter Theil, one each in Augsburg, Dresden and Leipzig.

36.

Fontenelle BLDB. Éloge de Mr. Tschirnhaus. Mémoires pour l'histoire des sciences et des beaux-arts 1710;38:151–159, 158.

37.

Fontenelle BLDB. The character of M Tschirnaus [sic], Late Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences. In: Roche MDL (ed) Memoirs of literature, 2nd ed., 8 vols. London: R Knaplock and P Vaillant, 1722, vol. 1, p.28.

38.

Fontenelle BLDB. Eloge de Monsieur de Tschirnhaus. In: Histoire du renouvellement de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, 2 vols. Paris: Chez Michel Brunet, 1717, vol. 2, pp.35–64, p. 61.

39.

Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15), pp. 24–26, 52–53, 64–65, 57–58.

40.

Gent PV (op. cit. ref. 1), p. 11.

41.

Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15), pp. 8, 12, 24.

42.

Morhof DG. De Ratione Conscribendarum Epistolarum Libellus. Lübeck: Apud Petrum Bockmannum, 1716, 141, 127. Longinus C. Liber de Grandi, sive Sublimi Orationis Genere. Basil: Per Ioannem Oporinum, [1554]. Longolius C. Epistolarum Libri Quatuor, Tullianae Scilicet Eloquentiae ad Unguem Expressam Imago. Basil: Apud Ioannem Valderum, 1533. ‘Christophorus Longolius' is the Latinised name of Christophe Longueil.

43.

Frijhoff W. Medical education and early modern Dutch medical practitioners: towards a critical approach. In: Marland H, Pelling M (eds) The task of healing: medicine, religion, and gender in England and the Netherlands, 1450–1800. Rotterdam: Erasmus, 1996, 220n19.

44.

Mooij A. Doctors of Amsterdam. Jackson B, translator. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2002, p.45,48; Lebrun F. Se soigner autrefois. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1995, pp.93–98.

45.

Eloy NFJ (op. cit. ref. 21), vol. 4, 441.

46.

Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15), pp. 4–8.

47.

Tschirnhaus EWV (op. cit. ref. 15), pp. 17, 67. Compare Albert Kyper’s statement ‘A learned doctor is a bad practitioner', quoted in French RK. Medicine before Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p.187.

48.

French RK (op. cit. ref. 47), p. 188.

49.

Huisman

. Itinerant medical practitioners in the Dutch Republic: the case of Gröningen. Tractrix 1989; 1: 63–83.

50.

The ambiguity of the status of ‘doctor' and the toleration of unlicensed practitioners are hardly unique to the distant past, and a comparison of recent examples may be useful. In the state of Arkansas, USA, where the author resides, until 2010 a licensed acupuncturist, even in the absence of an earned doctorate from an academic institution, was legally entitled to call himself a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, a title conferred by the State: see the Rules and Regulations of the Arkansas Board of Acupuncture and Related Techniques as of 14 January 2010, accessed 20 February 2012 at http://web.archive.org/web/20100323054835/http://www.asbart.org/rules.htm, §I.A.8. Now, and quite to the contrary, apparently it is illegal for an acupuncturist to refer to himself as a doctor even when he does possess an earned doctorate: see the Arkansas Code Annotated, revised as of 16 November 2011, §17–102-104(c) and Dustin McDaniel, Attorney General Opinion No. 2010-137 at http://ag.arkansas.gov/opinions/docs/2010-137.pdf (accessed 16 March 2012). Regarding unlicensed practitioners in the same area of the country, Vance Randolph, writing in the 1930s, states ‘[r]egular physicians are not very numerous in the Ozarks, and a great number of unaccredited persons are practising illegally, encouraged rather than hindered by the authorities', these practitioners often being, much like Tschirnhaus, ‘men who have had a year or two of training at some… medical college' and often referred to as doctors despite their lack of a degree (Randolph V. The Ozarks: an American survival of primitive society. New York: Vanguard Press, 1931, p.94).

51.

Dictionnaire universel françois et latin, vulgairement appelé Dictionnaire de Trévoux. Nouvelle édition. 8 vols. Paris: Par la Compagnie des Libraires Associés, 1771, vol. 5, p.902. ‘Iatraliptic' practitioners are those who attempt to cure by means of anointing and friction.

52.

Leibniz GW. Epistola 45. In: Spinoza B, Gebhardt C (ed) Spinoza opera Heidelberg: Carl Winters, [1925], vol. 4, p.231.

53.

Christoph PR. Barber-Surgeons in New Netherland and Early New York. In: Shattuck MD (ed) Explorers, fortunes and love letters: a window on new Netherland. Albany, NY: New Netherland Institute, 2009, p.60. For a similar situation in England several decades later, see Corfield PJ. Power and the professions in Britain, 1700–1850. London: Routledge, 1999, p.140.

The education of Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (1651–1708)