Moritz Benedikt

Moritz Benedikt also spelt Moriz (4 July 1835, in Eisenstadt, Sopron County – 14 April 1920, in Vienna) was a neurologist who worked in Austria-Hungary.

Early life and education He was born in Eisenstadt in Hungary. He got his medical education in Vienna, where he studied under Hyrtl, Briicke, Skoda, Oppolzer, Rokitansky and other well-known teachers, and qualified in 1859.

Career He was an instructor and professor of neurology at the University of Vienna. Benedikt was a physician with the Austrian army during the Second Italian War of Independence (1859) and the Austro-Prussian War.

Benedikt was a specialist in the fields of electrotherapeutics and neuropathology. His name is lent to the eponymous "Benedikt's syndrome", a disease characterized by ipsilateral oculomotor paralysis with contralateral tremor and hemiparesis caused by a lesion involving the red nucleus and corticospinal tract in the midbrain tegmentum.

Legacy Benedikt is remembered today for his controversial research in criminal anthropology. He performed numerous cephalometric studies, and postulated that there were specific differences between "normal" and "criminal brains". He explained his research on the subject in a book titled "Anatomical Studies upon the Brains of Criminals" (title of English translation).

Benedikt is credited for coining the word "darsonvalisation" to describe therapeutic or experimental applications of pulsed high frequency (110–400 kHz) high voltage (around 10–20 kV) current of a few mA. Darsonvalisation was named in honor of French biophysicist Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval (1851–1940).

Benedikt also took an interest in dowsing (radiesthesia), writing two books on this subject Leitfaden der Rutenlehre (eng. Guideline to use of Divining Rods) and Ruten- und Pendellehre (eng. Instructions in Diving Rods and Pendulums)

Publications Moriz Benedikt: Die psychologischen Funktionen des Gehirnes in gesundem und kranker Zustand, Wiener Klinik: Vorträge; Jg. 1, H. 7, Wien, 1875 Moriz Benedikt: Zur Lehre von der Localisation der Gehirnfunctionen, Wiener Klinik: Vorträge; Jg. 9, H. 5-6, Vienna, 1875 Moriz Benedikt: Ueber Katalepsie und Mesmerismus, Wiener Klinik: Vorträge; Jg. 6, H. 3/4, Vienna, 1880 Moriz Benedikt: Ueber Elektricität in der Medicin, Wiener Klinik: Vorträge; Jg. 10, H. 2, Vienna, 1884 Moriz Benedikt: Grundformeln des neuropathologischen Denkens, Wiener Klinik: Vorträge; Jg. 11, H. 4, Vienna, 1885 Moriz Benedikt: Hypnotismus und Suggestion, Breitenstein, Leipzig, 1894 Moriz Benedikt: Seelenkunde des Menschen als reine Erfahrungswissenschaft, Reisland, Leipzig, 1895 Moriz Benedikt: Krystallisation und Morphogenesis, Perles, Vienna, 1904 Moriz Benedikt: Aus meinem Leben: Erinnerungen und Erörterungen, Konegen, Vienna, 1906 Moriz Benedikt: Biomechanik und Biogenesis, , Jena, 1912 Moriz Benedikt: Die latenten (Reichenbach'schen) Emanationen der Chemikalien, Konegen, Vienna, 1915 Moriz Benedikt: Leitfaden der Rutenlehre (Wünschelrute), Urban & Schwarzenberg, Vienna, 1916; modern edition Moriz Benedikt: Ruten- und Pendellehre, Hartleben, Vienna, 1917