Preuss, Julius

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PREUSS, JULIUS

PREUSS, JULIUS (1861–1913), German physician and medical historian. Born in Gross-Schoenebeck (Saxonia), Preuss settled in Berlin as a practitioner and became an important writer on medicine in Jewish sources. He also took an active part in Orthodox community life. Preuss scientifically researched the problems of biblical and talmudic medicine, and his writings on the subject have remained a reliable guide.

His series on Hebrew medicine and Jewish medical men began with his Der Arzt in Bibel und Talmud (separate publication of Virchow's Archiv, 138 (1894), 261ff.). It was followed by a large number of essays on various aspects of biblical and talmudic medicine in scientific and literary journals. These were later collected in Biblisch-talmudische Medizin (1911, repr. 1921, 1923, 1969). The book is a model of scholarly research and presentation and has become a classic reference work.

bibliography:

Korot, 2 (1961), nos. 9–10 (incl. bibl. and Eng. summaries); S.R. Kagan, Jewish Medicine (1952), 562; J. Carlebach, Zur Erinnerungen an Sanitaetsrat Dr. Julius Preuss… (1913).

[Suessmann Muntner]