Dr. Karl (Carl) Bettelheim

Austrian physician; born at Presburg, Hungary, Sept. 28, 1840; died July 27, 1895. He received his medical education at the University of Vienna, where he studied under Hyrtl, Brücke, Rokitansky, and Skoda. In 1868, two years after obtaining his doctorate, he was appointed assistant to Oppolzer, and served in that capacity until 1870. Three years later he became docent of medicine (Innere Medizin) at the University of Vienna. From 1870 to 1878 he was editor of the "Medicinisch-Chirurgische Rundschau," and for several years was chief of the department of internal diseases at the Polyclinic, and physician-in-chief of the Rudolfinerhaus at Unterdöbling, near Vienna.

The scientific investigations of Bettelheim are chiefly on the pathology of the heart and blood-vessels. His experimental researches on mitral insufficiency and on the mechanics of the heart following compression of the coronary arteries are considered of great value.

Bettelheim's writings comprise a number of papers on diseases of the blood and circulatory organs, on certain affections of the alimentary canal, and reports of interesting clinical cases, which he published in the leading medical journals. His most important contributions are: "Ueber Bewegliche Körperchen im Blute," and "Ueber einen Fall von Phosphorvergiftung," in the "Wiener Medicinische Presse," 1868; "Ein Fall von Echinococcus Cerebri," "Stenose eines Astes der Pulmonalarterie," and "Bemerkungen zur Diagnose des Magencarcinoms," in "Vierteljahrschrift für Psychiatrie"; "Die Sichtbare Pulsation der Arteria Brachialis, ein Beitrag zur Symptomatologie Einiger Erkrankungen der Circulationsorgane," in the "Deutsches Archiv für Klinische Medicin," 1878; "Die Bandwürmer beim Menschen," in the "Sammlung Kliniseher Vorträge," 1879. He translated from the French R. Lépine's "Pneumonia Lobvin," Vienna, 1883; and "Diseases of the Spinal Cord," by the English neurologist Gowers. Bettelheim also described the origin of the second sound in the carotid artery ("Entstehung des Zweiten Tones in der Carotis," in "Zeitschrift für Klinische Medicin," 1883).

Bibliography: L. Eisenberg, Das Geistige Wien, ii. 26; Hirsch, Biographisches Lexikon, i. 440; Pagel, Biographisches Lexikon, p. 161.

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Worked with Sigmund Freud in 1884 (cf. Letters of Sigmund Freud, Sigmund Freud, Ernst L. Freud - 1992): Freud planned to study with him the influence of electricity on the nervous system.

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N.B. Though Betty BETTELHEIM, née LÖWY is listed as "mother" on some children's eventual death notices, in fact the mother of Ernestine & Jeni (and possibly also Karl? - no birth record yet traced for him) was Rosalie/Rosalia/Rosina, née OPPENHEIM (cf. birth & marriage registrations below) who presumably died between circa 1846 and 1848 and it appears that Leopold then married again. With Betty he had a daughter Rosina who was perhaps named after the deceased first wife.