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Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker Edit Profile

medical historian physician university professor

Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker was a German physician and medical writer, whose works appear in medical encyclopaedias and journals of the time.

Background

His father August Friedrich Hecker (1763–1811) was also a physician.

Education

He particularly studied disease in relation to human history, including plague, smallpox, infant mortality, dancing mania and the sweating sickness, and is often said to have founded the study of the history of disease. In 1805, when Justus was 10, the family moved from Justus"s birthplace of Erfurt to Berlin, and Justus later studied medicine at the University of Berlin, graduating in 1817 and becoming a Privatdozent and then (in 1822) Extraordinary Professor.

Career

In 1834, he became the university"s "ordinary professor" for the History of Medicine. He also cooperated with the professors of the "Medical Faculty of Berlin" on the encyclopaedic dictionary of the medical sciences.