[Hering, Vintschgau and the problem of Purkinje's succession]

The problem of Jan Evangelista Purkinje's succession will be presented according to the results of archival research. The Ministery of Cult and Education in Vienna, and especially Karl Rokitansky, who was the adviser for medical education, in 1867 created a new professorship and Institute for Physiology, beside Purkinje and his Institute. Maximilian Vintschgau was to assist the world-famous 80 years old Purkinje but was not permitted to teach the whole field of physiology and to examine students. The fact that the professors of the Prague Medical Faculty in 1868 started to remove the restrictions for Vintschgau with the argument of academic freedom and in 1869 tried to keep the second institute for the future, is not yet mentioned in the literature. Discussions about the problems of the Czech language and its use in physiological lectures were scarcely mentioned by the Ministery: if one day there should be a Czech-speaking lecturer, the problem would be solved. Unfortunately Purkinje had no genuine pupil in Prague, and after his death, Vintschgau was provisional director of the Institute for half a year. In this situation Rokitansky decided that there should only be one institute for physiology in Prague. The Medical Faculty wanted to have Hermann Helmholtz to succeed Purkinje, but Helmholtz refused to come. Ewald Hering, who was nominated in the second place by the Faculty, accepted the call. Vintschgau had only rank four, third was Conrad Eckhard from Giessen. The Ministery in Vienna, however, made a special decision: The Medical Faculty of Innsbruck was founded in 1869, and there was not professor for physiology at the beginning of 1870. The candidates of the Insbruck Medical Faculty were neglected in favour of Vintschgau, who was considered to be a trustworthy Austrian patriot. Hering and Vintschgau became professors on March 6, 1870, and Hering started his work in Prague in a new institute in the "Wenzelsbad".