Natanson, Ludwik

Polish physician; brother of Henryk Natanson; born 1821; died at Warsaw June 6, 1896. He studied medicine at the universities of Wilna and Dorpat, graduated from the latter in 1847, and in the same year started, with Le Brun and Helbich, the Polish medical periodical "Tygodnik Lekarski," which he edited until 1864. During the epidemic of cholera which raged at Warsaw from 1848 to 1852 Natanson was one of the most active physicians. While he was medical adviser to the great families of Warsaw—the Zamoiskis, Zaleskis, and others—he was at the same time visiting physician to many hospitals and asylums, and he always attended the poor gratuitously. In 1863 he was elected president of the Warsaw medical society. Notwithstanding his extensive practise Natanson always found time to take part in the affairs of the Jewish community, and most of the Jewish public institutions of Warsaw owe to him either their foundation or their development. The splendid synagogue established in 1878 at Warsaw owes its existence almost exclusively to the energy of Natanson, who was president of its building committee. He was concerned also in the erection of the immense Jewish hospital recently (1902) completed there, and in the establishment of a free-loan association and of an elementary and an artisan school; the income of his public lectures went to the fund of the latter school. From 1871 until his death Natanson was president of the Warsaw community, and managed its affairs with great wisdom and energy. Besides his numerous essays in the "Tygodnik," he published: "Nowe Listy Liebiga Chemji"(transl. from the German), Warsaw, 1854; "Krotki Rys Anatomji Ciala Ludzkiego," 1858; "Przyczynek do Fizjalogicznej Djagnostyki Kurezow," 1859; "Urywki w Kwestji Wychowania," 1861; "Fizjologiczne Zasady Estetyki," 1862; "Teorja Jestestw Idjodynamicznych," 1883; "Mechanika Snu," 1883; "La Circulation des Forces dans les Etres Animés," 1886; "O Uczeniu Rzemiosl."

Bibliography:

  * Khronika Voskhoda, 1896, No. 38;
  * Orgelbrand, in Encyklopedja Powszechna, s.v. Warsaw.



H. R. M. R.