Ignatz Leo Nascher
| Ignatz Leo Nascher | |
|---|---|
| Born |
11 October 1863 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | 25 December 1944 (aged 81) New York City, United States |
| Alma mater | New York University |
| Occupation | physician |
Ignatz Leo Nascher (11 October 1863 – 25 December 1944) was born in Austria and later became a doctor. He coined the term "geriatrics" in 1909.
Nascher was born in Vienna, Austria on 11 October 1863, and immigrated to New York City where he was brought up Later he also assumed US-citizenship. He drew on the Austrian system of care for the elderly. John Morley wrote that Nascher was "truly a polymath and a pioneer, whose ideas and efforts were underappreciated by his peers."
Nascher graduated from college with a degree in pharmacy in 1882 at the age of 19. Several years later he completed his MD and began private practice to which he devoted the first years of his career. During his time he published articles including "A Young Living Fetus" (Medical Record of New York, 1889), an article on prostitution in 1908 and "Tissue Cell Evolution" (New York Medical Journal, 1910).
He wrote, "Geriatrics, from geras, old age, and iatrikos, relating to the physician, is a term I would suggest as an addition to our vocabulary to cover the same field that is covered in old age that is covered by the term pediatrics in childhood, to emphasize the necessity of considering senility and its disease apart from maturity and to assign it a separate place in medicine." This was originally published in an article entitled "Geriatrics" in the New York Medical Journal (1909; 90: 358-9).
His 1909 article broke with prevailing views on aging. Nascher wrote that "senility is a distinct period of life, a physiological entity as much so as the period of a childhood." This emphasis on physiological processes and mechanisms of aging and senescence challenged the "pathological model" of aging that was then "the primary focus of medical researchers, including Nobel Laureate Elie Metchnikoff." Nascher addressed and rejected Metchnikoff's theory that aging was caused by tissue phagocytosis and "autointoxication" (the absorption of intestinal decompositions) for which Metchnikoff prescribed yoghurt.
...
Wikipedia