[Awards in pathology-a man's world?] / Preise in der Pathologie ­ eine Männerdomäne?

BACKGROUND: Awards provide their recipients with fame and recognition, and subsequently facilitate publications and acquisition of external funding through increased visibility. We hypothesize that despite increasing representation in pathology, women are underrepresented as awardees in the German Society of Pathology and consequently there is an associated imbalance between genders. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Published data from the German Society of Pathology on female awardees during the period from 2000 to 2022 were examined. Only awards specifically dedicated to the field of pathology were considered. In addition, the publicly available data of the German Medical Association on gender and age distribution of pathologists in Germany were considered as reference material. RESULTS: A total of six different awards were included in the analysis. Among the 143 awardees across 150 individual awards in the period from 2000 to 2022, 55 (38.4%) of the awardees were female compared to an average percentage of 31% of women working in the field of pathology in the 23-year period under consideration. Consequently, female awardees in pathology were not underrepresented when compared to the national figures on the proportion of women in the field of pathology. However, the distribution of female awardees across individual awards suggests that women were increasingly represented in less prestigious research and doctoral awards, while men made up a large proportion of awardees of honorary awards (0% women) and prestigious awards (17% women).

[Innovations from the Baltic Sea region: Nils Alwall, Lembit Norviit, Adolfs Martins Steins and the artificial kidney]. / Innovationen im Ostseeraum: Nils Alwall, Lembit Norviit, Adolfs Martins Steins und die künstliche Niere.

In connection with the construction of one of the first practical dialysis machines, medical historians emphasize the work of the Swedish physician Nils Alwall. Together with his colleagues, he developed a device in the 1940s that could implement the combination of dialysis and ultrafiltration with membranes (cellophane tubes). Little known is the involvement of the physicians Lembit Norviit from Estonia and Adolfs Martins Steins from Latvia, both coauthors of the influential research article Clinical extracorporeal dialysis of blood with artificial kidney that was published in The Lancet in 1948 and the transfer of knowledge between Estonian, Latvian and Swedish researchers.

[Granting of venia legendi as an indicator of specialization : Victor von Ivánchich de Margita (1812-1892) "Lecturer for surgery of the urogenital organs" in Vienna in 1851]. / Die Erteilung der Venia legendi als Gradmesser einer einsetzenden Fachdifferenzierung : Victor von Ivánchich de Margita (1812­1892) "Docent für die Chirurgie der Harnorgane" in Wien, 1851.

Alongside Paris, Vienna was one of the early centers of specialization and professionalization in medicine and urology in the 19th century. Especially the 2nd Vienna Medical School (Erna Lesky) with its main representatives Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky (in Czech: Karel Rokytanský; 1804-1878) and Joseph Ritter von Skoda (1895-1881) was able to create the perfect scientific environment for young students to become acquainted with new fields of research often in an interdisciplinary setting, e.g., chemistry, microscopy or pathology in combination with clinical departments like surgery. We analyze the process of habilitation using the example of a urologist to outline this process within the history of science.

[Why in Koenigsberg, why Samuel Jessner, why 1921? : History of the first university lectureship for sexology in Germany]. / Warum in Königsberg, warum Samuel Jessner, warum 1921? : Hintergründe zum ersten universitären Lehrauftrag für Sexualwissenschaft in Deutschland.

The dermatologist and venerologist Samuel Jessner (1895-1929) received a lectureship for sexology at the University of Koenigsberg (today: Russian Калининград, Kaliningrad) in 1921. Since 1928 he was also listed as a urologist in the Reichsmedizinalkalender (German Physician Address Calendar). In this article we trace his life and work and ask how Jessner was able to achieve this academic success in the periphery of German sexology and without close ties to its networks. His weak influence in research, his lack of connection to a "school" of sexual science in German-speaking countries, and his Jewish origin were factors that impaired both the recognition of his work among his contemporaries and his recognition in the discipline-specific historiography until today.

Why so few Nobel Prizes for cancer researchers? An analysis of Nobel Prize nominations for German physicians with a focus on Ernst von Leyden and Karl Heinrich Bauer.

PURPOSE: To date, 11 scientists have received the Nobel Prize for discoveries directly related to cancer research. This article provides an overview of cancer researchers nominated for the Nobel Prize from 1901 to 1960 with a focus on Ernst von Leyden (1832-1910), the founder of this journal, and Karl Heinrich Bauer (1890-1978). METHODS: We collected nominations and evaluations in the archive of the Nobel committee of physiology or medicine in Sweden to identify research trends and to analyse oncology in a Nobel Prize context. RESULTS: We found a total of 54 nominations citing work on cancer as motivation for 11 candidates based in Germany from 1901 to 1953. In the 1930s, the US became the leading nation of cancer research in a Nobel context with nominees like Harvey Cushing (1869-1939) and George N. Papanicolaou (1883-1962). DISCUSSION: The will of Alfred Nobel stipulates that Nobel laureates should have "conferred the greatest benefit to mankind". Why were then so few cancer researchers recognized with the Nobel medal from 1901 to 1960? Our analysis of the Nobel dossiers points at multiple reasons: (1) Many of the proposed cancer researchers were surgeons, and surgery has a weak track record in a Nobel context; (2) several scholars were put forward for clinical work and not for basic research (historically, the Nobel committee has favoured basic researchers); (3) the scientists were usually not nominated for a single discovery, but rather for a wide range of different achievements.

[Women in urology and the culture of remembrance: Dora Brücke-Teleky (1879-1967)]. / Frauen in der fachkulturellen Erinnerung der Urologie: Dora Brücke-Teleky (1879­1967).

Women have long been underrepresented in medicine and urology, and thus also in the history of medicine and urology. However, within the last 10 years there has been an increase in the focus on gender studies, including the relevant topics within the history of science. Within urology the difficult pathway for women to enter the job in Austria could be analysed, which now allows them to be included in the general culture of remembrance. Within the education process of students, these topics were often dedicated little time and ignored in research.

Transfer of Knowledge in Urology: A Case Study of Jacob Eduard Polak (1818-1891) and the Introduction of Contemporary Techniques of Lithotomy and Lithotripsy from Vienna to Persia in the Mid-19th Century: A New Analysis of Scientific Papers from the 19th Century.

The middle of the 19th century marks the beginning of a global process of science and knowledge transfer from -Europe to the rest of the world. During the phase of globali-zation, Austrian physician and ethnographer Jacob E. Polak (1818-1891) played a key role in the transmission of practical and scientific reasoning, leading to the development of medical science and clinical care in Persia. In 1851, Polak was commissioned by the Persian court to work as an academic teacher at the first secular institution of higher learning in Teheran, the Dar al-Fonun. After 4 years of teaching and working as a doctor and surgeon, Polak was appointed personal physician to the Qajar king, Naser-ad-Din Shah (r. 1848-1896). During Polak's 9 year stay in Persia, he performed numerous surgical operations with specific focus on lithotomies on men and women of all ages. He documented each operation and collected samples of bladder calculi for the purpose of chemical analysis. After his return to Austria, he published a detailed report on his practice of lithotomy in Persia. This extensive documentation is, we believe, the only known historical evidence that currently exists of the introduction of modern urology to Persia. This study will present Polak's role as a pioneer of modern medicine and lithotomy, and will examine how he introduced the latest achievements of Viennese medicine in the field of operative urology to Persia.

Scientific language trends among Swedish urologists and surgeons 1900-1955.

PURPOSE: Before English took the lead as the prime scientific language among northern European urologists and surgeons, German was widely regarded as the "lingua franca". This shift has to date not been systematically reconstructed. This article provides insights into the question how political and social factors influence how physicians communicate with each other, what they read, and how the constellations of international scientific communities in medicine change over time. METHODS: Through a language analysis of more than 2000 articles, including their references, in major Swedish medical journals as well as surgical doctoral dissertations defended at Swedish universities, this paper explores scientific language trends during the first half of the twentieth century among Swedish physicians for the first time on a large scale. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The study shows that Swedish urologists and surgeons generally did not switch to English during the years immediately after the First World War, as has been documented in other countries. After a decrease during the first 10 years after the First World War, the German language dominated among Swedish urologists and surgeons from the 1930s until the early 1940s, when English first dominated at large. The rapidity of this process shows that almost all surgical researchers had changed from German to English within just a few years.

["We're going to place a ureteral stent " : Development and use of the terms stent and splint by German-speaking urologists]. / "Wir legten eine Harnleiterschiene ein " : Entwicklung und Gebrauch der Begriffe Stent und Splint in der deutschsprachigen Urologie.

The use of eponyms has a long history in medicine. But it is a rare case that a term not associated with a procedure or an anatomical description has come into use. The terms "stent" and "splint" in German and English used as a verb and a noun are a typical example. The coronary stent was named after Charles Thomas Stent (1807-1885). Charles Theodore Dotter (1920-1985) was the one who introduced the eponym into the literature of angiography in 1983. The change in urology occurred after an article of Willard Goodwin especially in the English literature but did not come into constant use in the German language.

["When all of you will be forgotten, the name Israel will still be shining" : James Israel (1848-1926): a career in the German Empire and his nomination for the Nobel Prize]. / "Wenn Sie alle vergessen sein werden, wird der Name Israel noch leuchten" : James Israel (1848­1926): Eine Karriere im Deutschen Kaiserreich und seine Nominierung für den Nobelpreis.

In 1902, the Berlin Jewish urologist James Israel was nominated for the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Taking scholar, social, and political aspects into consideration, this biographical essay traces how James Israel gained a sound scientific reputation especially in kidney surgery within Imperial Germany and its antisemitic attitude and how he promoted urology to become a specialty in its own right.