VENCESLAUS PAYER (1488–1537)
Origin and Education
Venceslaus Payer (also written Bayer or Beyer) was born in 1488 in Loket. In 1508 he entered the University of Leipzig, where he studied philosophy. He obtained the degree of bachelor in 1510 and became a master of arts in 1512.
Later he turned to medicine. In 1519 he travelled to Italy and in 1520 studied medicine in Bologna. During his stay he visited several Italian spa towns and compared them with the famous thermal spring of Karlovy Vary.
In 1521 he lectured on medicine at the University of Leipzig.
Physician in Jáchymov
In the same year he entered the service of the Schlik family as their court physician. Between 1521 and 1525 he also worked as municipal physician in Jáchymov, which at that time was one of the most important mining towns in Europe.
Here he began to study the health problems of miners working in the local silver mines.
First Description of the Miners’ Disease
In 1523 he published in Jáchymov the treatise On Occupational Diseases of Miners. In this work he described a specific illness observed among miners in the Jáchymov mines, later known as the miners’ disease.
This treatise is considered one of the first scientific descriptions of a disease caused by working conditions and makes Payer one of the founders of occupational medicine.
Other Works
After returning to Leipzig he continued his medical and scholarly work.
Among his other writings are:
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Treatise on Karlovy Vary (1522)
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On the English Sweating Sickness (1529)
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Treatise on the Plague (1530)
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On the Importance of the Heart (1535)
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a polemical work against Dr. Sebastian Roth of Auerbach
After Payer left Jáchymov, Stephan Schlik had two medals with Payer’s portrait minted in the town in 1526. The Karlovy Vary physician Jean de Carro later mistakenly assumed that Payer had died in that year.
Death
Venceslaus Payer died in Leipzig between 11 and 17 March 1537.
