Moleschott en het materialisme

Jacques Moleschott (1822-1893), born into a Dutch Roman Catholic family, attended secondary school in Cleve (Germany). There he became captivated by Hegelian philosophy and lost his faith. After medical studies in Heidelberg and a brief spell as physician in Utrecht, where he struck up a life-long friendship with the physiologists Franciscus Donders (1818-1889) and Izaak van Deen (1805-1869), he returned to Heidelberg as lecturer in physiology. In his textbooks and particularly in his book for the general public, ‘The circulation of life’ (in German), he attested to a strict physicochemical view of biological phenomena, in opposition to contemporary notions of vitalism and teleology. When the atheistic implications had caused a conflict with the authorities in Baden, he moved as professor of physiology to Zürich (1854) and subsequently to the emerging nation of Italy, as professor in Turin (1861) and finally in Rome (1878), where he became a senator.

Conflict of interest: none declared. Financial support: J.P. Gijselhart works part-time for the Association of the Dutch Journal of Medicine (Vereniging Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde), Amsterdam.