[Early dissertation on endourology-life and work of Georg Adelmann (1811-1888)]

Doctoral dissertations in medicine provide precise insights into the state of knowledge and research methodology at a particular time. In contrast to more canonised textbook texts, dissertations often present scientific discourses and different views in a more detailed and therefore more comprehensible manner. This makes them relevant sources for tracing and analysing the development of the specialist field, but they are often not a focus of research into the history of science, partly due to insufficient documentation. In the context of a research project on dissertation culture in urology, this article uses the example of the Dorpat surgeon Georg Adelmann to analyse the embedding of an early dissertation on endourology in the contemporary research debate.