Category:Julius Tandler

Julius Tandler (1869 – 1936) was an Austrian anatomist and physician.

He later became a Social Democratic politician introducing a system of public health and social services in the Vienna municipality in the interwar years.

Review - Julius Tandler. A Biography

Am J Public Health Nations Health. 1945 Jan; 35(1): 73–74. PMCID: PMC1625241 Julius Tandler. A Biography Reviewed by C.-E. A. Winslow

By Alfred Goetzl and Ralph Arthur Reynolds. Privately printed, San Francisco, Calif., 1944. 63 pp. Price, $1.75.

This little book is a valuable contribution to the history of public health, since it reviews the career of a pioneer whom we should recall with admiration and respect.

Prior to the first world war, Dr. Tandler was well known as a fruitful investigator and a brilliant teacher of anatomy; but in 1920 he abandoned the academic life to become City Welfare Councilor of Vienna. He was primarily responsible for the sound and brilliant developments of public health service in the Austrian capital; and we have still much to learn from the program be developed for child welfare and recreation and for the control of tuberculosis and venereal disease. The authors of this biography summarize Dr. Tandler’s attitude toward the role of the medical profession in modern life as follows: They point out that under our traditional practice, “The physician must necessarily be economically dependent on the patient under treatment; consequently the frequency of the physician's visits and the type of therapy will be dictated not only by the nature of the patient’s illness, but also by the physician’s own material interests. This constant conflict of conscience on the part of the physician cannot possibly improve his morale. On the contrary, it may actually be damaged. The physician, consciously or unconsciously, is apt to degenerate into a mere wageearner, always dissatisfied with his small income and at the same time maintaining an attitude of false independence. Tandler’s point of view on this question explains more clearly why he was criticised so frequently and so violently by his colleagues.

“Opposing this. individualistic attitude on the part of practising physicians, Tandler maintained that the individual had a right to health. . . . If society may take steps to provide health for the individual as a protective measure in its own interest then each individual is likewise entitled to claim preservation of his health by society.

Jan., 1945

Tandler had felt that if the philosophy expressed in this corollary had been put into practice during earlier days, there would today be fewer and less serious problems before the medical profession. He was of the opinion that the physician should occupy a similar position in the social structure to that of the judge, the teacher, and the priest. These latter groups are supported from funds provided by society as a whole.”

C.-E. A. Winslow

References

Tandler J. On the development of the aortic and pharyngeal arches in human. (Ueber die Entwicklung des V. Aortenbogens und der V. Schlundtasche beirn Menschen). (1909) Anat. Hefte. 38: 393–423.

Tandler, J., 1902. Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Kopfarterien bei den Mammalia. Morphol. Jahrb., vol. 30, 275-373.

Tandler, J. 1907. Ueber einen menschlichen Embryo vom 38. Tage. Anat. Ariz., 31. 49-56.

Tandler, J. : Ueber die Entwicklung des V. Aorteubogens und der V. Schlundtasche beirn Menschen, Anat. Hefte, vol. 38 1909.