Philipp Bozzini (1773 - 1809) Summary

Philipp Bozzini was born 1773 in Mainz and started his medical studies there, later he changend to the university of Jena to complete his experience. Bozzini was granted the title of doctor of medicine, which allowed him to establish in Mainz as physician, later in Frankfurt/Main. Beside his studies in medicine he had extraordinary knowledge in mathematic, philosophy and chemistry. He had also exeptional talent as drawer and he was a true visionary. These characteristics enabled him to construct, realize and explain his invention: The Lichtleiter.

The "Lichtleiter" consisted of the materials glass and metal. For manufacturing knowledge of physik and mechanics was necessary. Bozzini needed the assistance of metal workers and opticans. For lightening a candle was used.

State of the art

The items which were used for the "Lichtleiter" like a lamp case, magnifying glasses, optical lenses, conical mirror, metal specula and surgical instruments were available. Only candles were manufactured for a reasonable price since the year 1800, before they were luxury goods. The workmanship of metal workers were on a high level, which is confirmed by engineers of Mercedes who produced a copy of the Lichtleiter using Bozzinis original drawings. The candlelight and the optical lenses were of poor quality as they limited the field of view to a small diameter , but Bozzini made the best of what was available.

Literature

The technology, has been used by Bozzini for constructing the endoscope, has been known at least since 1710. The German Johann Michael Conradi published a text book on the evolution of optics. ("Der dreyfach geartete Sehstrahl"). Conradi discribed all technologies which were important for endoscope production and lined out all the parts, Bozzini used for his "Lichtleiter".

Invention

The milestone invention of Bozzini was, that for the first time in history he combined all available technologies into a unique, useable product. The breakthrough development was, to seperate the speculum into two channels, one for illumination by a candle and one for reflecting images back to the eye of the viewer. No one has done so before.

Treatment and vision


Bozzini had a wide range of use in his mind. He discribed his hope as follows:
"Extirpation of carcinoma of the uterus, deformities of the uterine office, the vagina, polyps and ulcera of the same and of the rectum. Also the bladder stone can be operated by sight."                   The aim of his invention was to avoid needless patient injuries and questionable examination methods.Also he wanted to gain knowledge about disease pathologies. His invention leaded at the end to new ways of diagnosis and treatmant of diseases. Bozzini inspired generations of surgeons and engineers to continue endoscopic evolution. Therefore he is the true originer of Endoscopy.

Will be continued

Die Geschichte der Endoskopie / Endoskope

Das erste dokumentierte medizinische Endoskop wurde 1806 vom Frankfurter ArztPhilipp Bozzini entwickelt. Es war ein starres Endoskop und als Lichtquelle diente eine Kerze. Zu bestaunen ist das Bozzini Endoskop heute im Wiener Institut für Geschichte der Medizin.

Etwa 50 Jahre später wurde das Bozzini Endoskop durch den französischen ArztAntonin J. Desormeaux weiterentwickelt. So ersetzte er 1855 unter anderem die Kerze durch eine Gasbogenlampe, um die Lichtleistung zu erhöhen und das Gerät etwas handlicher zu machen.

Im Jahre 1879 war es der deutsche Arzt Maximilian Nitze, der mit dem Zystoskop erstmals ein Gerät vorstellte, das in seiner Bauart den heutigen Endoskopen entspricht, jedoch weiterhin starr war. Er entwickelte dieses Endoskop zusammen mit dem österreichischen Chirurgiemechaniker Josef Leiter.

Das erste flexible Endoskop wurde erst im Jahr 1958 entwickelt. Es war aufgrund seiner Bauert auch als Flexoskop bekannt, basierte erstmals auf Glasfasertechnologie und wurde entwickelt von dem Südafrikaner Basil Isaac Hirschowitz. Er erhielt dafür eine Vielzahl von Auszeichnungen, u.a. die Schindler Medaille der American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE).

Die endgültige Revolution in der Endoskopie begründetet sich aus der Entwicklung des elektronische Endoskops. Hier wurde an der Spitze ein CCD-Bildwandlerchip (Charge-coupled Device) verbaut, der die Bildwiedergabe auf einem Monitor ermöglicht. Die elektronischen Endoskope verfügen außerdem über Spül- und Absaugvorrichtungen sowie über Kanäle zum Einführen von speziellen Instrumenten, wie z.B. Zangen zur Entnahme von Gewebeproben oder Ultraschallsonden für die Endosonographie.

State of the art about 1800

Bozzini´s Lichtleiter (2)

Catheters and Specula

Bozzini connected to the container speculas of different sizes for examination of the ear, urethra, femal bladder and vagina.

Speculas are also known since anticity. First catheters for examination of the bladder have been used about 3000 before Christ in Egypt and were made of bronze. First anatomical correctly formed catheters are shown by Erastios 320 before Christ. Also dilators for widenig of natural cavities origin from this centuries.

 

Quality of metal material and production processes improved constantly, espacially stimulated by armourers. The Arabic surgeon  Abu-I-Qasim  (Abucasis) developed about 1000 past Christ a lot of surgical instruments and described their use in the medical publication "Kitab-al-tasif". Some of them were used for examination of the ear and to remove foreign particels out of the esophagus.

State of the art of technique and workmanship for endoscopes around 1800

Philip Bozzini

Philipp Bozzini has been a doctor and needed the cooperation with surgical engeneers which transformed his ideas into a real product called the "Lichtleiter". He suffered from the slow progress of their workmanship and that they were not willing to invest own money into this invention. No one knows who were those persons but it seems that they had been armourers and metal workers.

Ringleb, the wellknown urologist of Berlin ( 1875 - 1946) mentioned this difficulties which Bozzini had to overcome and described the qualitiy of workmanship of the "Lichtleiter" as poor. This was an error. Later on, when the engeneers of Mercedes rebuild the "Lichtleiter" by existing original drawings they admired their high quality and the precise workman ship of the Lichtleiter

State of the art 1806

To produce the Lichtleiter the following materials were used by Philipp Bozzini:
 


A container made of iron sheet and covered by a leather overlayer to place the candle inside. This kind of work has been performed by armourers and metal workers since anticity, also the use of this materials is known since these times.

Bozzini used for his invention a concave mirror. Mirrors origine also from anticity. First ones have been made of polished metal. In the middle age mirrors of glass were made by glass blowers of Venice (Murano) using tin layers placed on the back side. The French doctor Peter Borell (1620 - 1689) developed the concave mirror for magnification and better lightening of the field of examiniation inside the human body. Concave mirrors reached high importance for ENT applications.

Bozzini used a collecting lenses which he placed infront of the speculas. First optical lenses are shown in the historic museum of Visby/Sweden. They were made of rock crystal and origin from 11th century. The quality  has an uncredible standard and are comparable with lenses produced nowadays.

Lenses for microscopes have been engeneered by Hans Janssen (Netherland) in 1595 and Hans Lippershey. Also Galileo Galilei, Eustachio Divini, A.M. Schryl de Reta and Christian Huygens contributed their knowledge to the progress of lens production and microscopes development.

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek brouhgt a step forward in the kind he polished optical lenses. He produced about 500 microscopes during his life but never sold one. His lenses of 1.2 mm diameter leed to 270 times magnification of the image.

Such lenses could also be used for endoscopes. But the quality of the lenses used by Bozzini were poor.

Introduction in Endoscopic History

Introduction The aim of this page is to explain endoscopic treatment in relation to historic development of endoscopes and endoscopic equipment.

There will also be shown the relationship between developments, made for the consumer market, which were used later for endoscopic purpose. If someone analysis the past of endoscopic inventions in that manner, he will be able to find out faster than any one else, whats comming next.

This page should bring together surgeons, developers and entrepreneurs who will move Forward endoscopic Treatment and endoscopic Equipment.