Paul Fortunatus Mundé

Background

Paul F. Mundé was born on September 7, 1846, in Dresden, Germany. His mother, Bertha, was the daughter of Baron von Hornemann, a councilor of the King of Saxony. His father, Dr. Charles Mundé, a man of intense democratic ideals, participated actively in the Revolution of 1848, was proscribed, and as a political exile fled with wife and child to America.

The family settled in Florence, Massachusetts, where Dr. Charles Mundé conducted a sanatorium until his return to Germany.

Education

His studious nature was early exhibited; Mundé entered the Boston Latin School, and at the age of seventeen years was prepared to start the study of medicine at Yale.

The Civil War interrupted his studies, but the spirit of adventure which seems to have been one of his essential characteristics was not satisfied by service in the garrison at Boston, and after six months he returned to the study of medicine at Harvard. Mundé graduated with high honors in 1866 and spent the next seven years in Germany.

Career

Mundé arrived just in time to take part in the War of 1866 as an assistant surgeon in the Bavarian army. Upon his release from service in 1867 he went to Würzburg, where the famous gynecologist and obstetrician, Scanzoni, was in charge of the Maternity Hospital. Mundé was resident physician for three years and here obtained the training which determined his future work and gave him the ideals of German scientific medicine. Again a war interrupted his studies.

He joined the Bavarian army at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian conflict, and at the siege of Paris had charge of a hospital which was destroyed by the enemy's fire.

At the close of the war he traveled throughout Europe and visited the centers where medical thought was particularly active - Heidelberg, Berlin, Vienna, London, Edinburgh, and Paris.

After this extraordinary preparation Mundé returned to America in 1873 and entered practice in New York City. His subsequent life was one of devotion to scientific medicine. The time was propitious for the development of the specialties. New York City was the scene of labors of J. M. Sims, T. A. Emmett, and Abraham Jacobi, but there was great need for such well-trained men as Mundé. His assiduity marked him as fitted for positions which require painstaking energy and these he filled with such skill that only the physical incapacities of later years relieved him of his labors.

In 1874 he became chief editor of the American Journal of Obstetrics and he retained that position until 1892. In this time the Journal rose to a position of preeminence in its field.

Mundé became gynecologist to Mount Sinai Hospital in 1881, and its Gynecological Outpatient Department was his creation. As professor of gynecology he taught in the New York Polyclinic and at Dartmouth College. He died on February 7, 1902, in New York City in his fifty-sixth year.

Achievements

• Paul F. Mundé was a recognized physician and gynecologist, who exerted a powerful influence on the course of the gynecological specialty in America, not because of any important scientific discovery but because he brought excellent training, a passion for scientific truth, and weighed judgment to a country which still lacked workers of quality. During the Franco-Prussian conflict he rescued the wounded personally and received the Iron Cross for this deed.

Works

More photos

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  • A Report of the Gynecological Service of Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, for the Twelve Years from January 1st, 1883, to December 31st, 1894 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from A Report of the Gynecological Service of Mou...)

  • The Diagnosis and Treatment of Obstetric Cases by External (Abdominal) Examination and Manipulation (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Diagnosis and Treatment of Obstetric Cas...)

  • Minor surgical gynecology: a manual of uterine diagnosis and the lesser technicalities of gynecological practice; for the use of the advanced student and general practitioner

    (This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)

  • A Sketch of the Management of Pregnancy, Parturition and the Puerperal State, Normal and Abnormal

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • A practical treatise on the diseases of women

Membership

Paul F. Mundé was secretary and (1886 - 1888) president of the New York Obstetrical Society and treasurer (1876 - 1883), vice-president (1884), and president (1898) of the American Gynecological Society.

Personality

Paul F. Mundé inherited intrepidity and a sturdy physical constitution from his father.

Connections

In November 1873, Paul F. Mundé married Eleanor Claire Hughes of New Haven, Connecticut, by whom he had a son.

Father:

Charles Mundé

Mother:

Bertha Mundé (Hornemann)

Wife:

Eleanor Claire Mundé (Hughes)

Son:

Paul F. Mundé