Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra

Ferdinand Karl Franz Schwarzmann, Ritter von Hebra (7 September 1816 – 5 August 1880) was an Austrian medical doctor and dermatologist known as the founder of the New Vienna School of Dermatology, an important group of physicians who established the foundations of modern dermatology.

Life

Ferdinand Schwarzmann von Hebra was born in Brno, Moravia, Austrian Empire (in the present-day Czech Republic), to a military officer. He first studied in Graz, then entered the University of Vienna and graduated in medicine in 1841. He was influenced by Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, one of the founders of modern pathological anatomy.

Though not its original discoverer, von Hebra's 1844 research dispelled any remaining doubt that the itch mite was the cause of scabies, helping to dispel the humoral theory of skin disease. This publication was the inflection point where the term 'scabies' transitioned from referring to a collection of non-specific itchy ailments, to a particular pathological process specifically caused by the itch mite.

In the second half of the 19th century, Hebra introduced resurfacing and restoring skin with chemical peel. He used exfoliative agents, like phenol, croton oil, nitric acid in various cautious combination for treating freckles and skin irregularities. He greatly influenced Carl Mayrhofer, who continued Semmelweis's research on puerperal fever.

In 1856, Hebra published the first edition of the influential Atlas der Hautkrankheiten (Atlas of Skin Diseases),

In 1878, Hebra began writing another milestone work, the Lehrbuch der Hautkrankheiten (Textbook of Skin Diseases). However this book was not finished during Hebra's lifetime and was instead completed by his former student, the dermatologist Moritz Kaposi.

Following the death of Carl von Rokitansky in July 1878, Hebra was elected president of the College of Physicians in Vienna. He died on 5 August 1880, in Vienna, of pulmonary emphysema before chairing a single meeting.

Legacy Hebra's research was influential in his time, to the extent that "his clinic became the mecca and shifted the centre of dermatology from England and France to Austria", according to the medical historians Walter B. Shelley and John T. Crissey, who describe Hebra as "by far the most important" dermatologist in the 19th century. In the early 20th century, medical historian Victor Robinson described Hebra as "the undisputed potentate of Hautkrankheiten [skin diseases]" in his lifetime.

Hebra was known to his contemporaries as an engaging teacher and interesting speaker, combining both sympathy and satire into his talks.