In the history of medicine, Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring is one of the names that keeps returning.
The record lists Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring as German anatomist and paleontologist (1755–1830).
Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring was born at Toruń in 1755. His recorded nationality is Germany. He trained at University of Göttingen.
Hospitals became teaching institutions in this period, and clinical observation began to be recorded systematically.
His posts were held at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
The recorded fields of work are medicine, anatomy and physiology.
The test of medical work is whether practice changed, not whether the argument was elegant.
That the work was done from Germany matters: hospitals, training and research funding are unevenly distributed, and they decide which questions can be asked.
Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring died in 1830, aged 75. What survives is the change in practice, which is how a medical life is actually measured.
Achievements
- Held posts at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
- Fields: medicine, anatomy and physiology
