MAGNUS HUNDT (1449–1519)
Origin and Education
Magnus Hundt, also known as Magnus Hund or in Latin Magnus Canis (“Great Dog”), was probably born in 1449 in Magdeburg.
He began his academic career relatively late. At the university he worked at the Faculty of Arts, where he served as dean before 1499. In that year he was appointed rector of the university. His intellectual interests were broad and included medicine, philosophy and theology. In 1510 he obtained a doctorate in theology.
Activity in Jáchymov
During the early development of the mining town of Jáchymov, Magnus Hundt worked as town physician and for about seven years also served as personal physician to the Schlik family, the founders of the town.
In his medical work he dealt especially with illnesses affecting miners and with health problems connected with mining work. He also drew on the experiences of local miners in his observations.
Medical and Scientific Work
From the period of his work in Jáchymov comes the treatise Regimen against Consumption, printed in 1529. In this work he dealt with the widespread disease of consumption, now known as tuberculosis.
Hundt believed that the disease could be treated mainly by dietary measures and early diagnosis. His work contains detailed descriptions of the stages of the disease based on practical medical experience and anatomical observation.
In these descriptions he already used the term anthropology, and therefore he is regarded, together with Otto Casmann, as one of the founders of modern anthropology.
Works
Magnus Hundt authored several scholarly works, including four medical treatises, grammatical writings, commentaries on the works of St. Augustine and Peter Lombard, and various philosophical texts.
Death
Magnus Hundt died on 3 May 1519 in Meissen.
