The New International Encyclopædia/Hirsch, August

HIRSCH, hḗrsh, August (1817-94). A German physician, born at Danzig, where he practiced after studying at Berlin and Leipzig. In recognition of his studies on malarial fever and his work, Handbuch der historisch-geographischen Pathologie (2d ed. 1881-83), he was in 1863 made professor at Berlin. In 1873 he was a member of the German Cholera Commission, studied the conditions of Posen and West Prussia, and published a valuable report (1874). He studied the plague in Astrakhan in 1879 and 1880, and in the latter year wrote a report to his Government. His more important writings are: Die Meningitis Cerebro-spinalis Epidemica (1866); Geschichte der Augenheilkunde (1877); Geschichte der medizinischen Wissenschaften in Deutschland (1893); a revision of Hecker's collected writings, under the title Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters (1865). He edited Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Aerzte aller Zeiten und Völker (1884-88); and with Virchow the Jahresbericht über die Fortschritte und Leistungen der Medizin (1866 et seq.).