The innovator: Lajos Thanhoffer (1843-1909) was a professor at the department of physiology, natural history and botany of the Veterinary Institute in Pest, then the Royal Hungarian Veterinary School between 1872 and 1890. He received his medical degree in 1867 and worked as a surgeon. He worked at Balassa’s and then at Jendrássik’s institute from 1868 to 1869. He became a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1880 and wrote his first book on histology in Hungarian in 1883. In 1890 he left the Veterinary Institute and the Academy, where he established a modern histology laboratory. He was the first to introduce the microscope into teaching and to lecture regularly on histology. He is considered the founder of veterinary histology in Hungary. He was the successor of József Lenhossék as professor of the department of anatomy at the faculty of medicine. (Source: Hungarian Veterinary Pantheon)
Description: “Basically a Marey sphygmograph modified by Thanhoffer. A spring clamps the ivory pressure plate to the striking arrow; a writing lever, connected to the spring by a transmission, draws the curve of the stroke on paper.” (Source: Állatorvosi értelmező szótár. Szerk. Gallyas Csaba, Holló Ferenc. Budapest, Mezőgazdasági Kiadó, 1984. p. 760.)
“The essential part of this instrument is a spring-loaded kick (R), the free end of which is provided with an ivory pressure plate, which comes over the artery and exerts some pressure thereon. There is a rack attached to the kick above its pressure plate the teeth of which mesh with the teeth of a gear (fk). The gearwheel is therefore forced to follow all the movements of the kicker and will also move the adjustable scriber (E) by means of the screw connected to it. The free end of the lever is sharpened and its movements are marked on the surface of the aluminium plate (OO), which is guided by a clockwork (Ór) and coated with carbon paper. The device is fixed by means of a tie (k) over the art. radialis so that the movement is turned towards the elbow joint. After writing, the carefully removed paper is dipped in shellac solution and allowed to dry.” (Source of the detailed description and the image: Klug Nándor: VII. A vér és vérkeringés élettana. In: Klug Nándor: Az emberélettan tankönyve 2. rész. Különös élettan : II. Az anyagforgalom élettana és III. Az egyénforgalom élettana. Budapest, Magyar Orvosi Könyvkiadó Társulat, 1888. p. 298.)
Year: 1878 (1876)
Interesting: “- Invention of a Hungarian scientist. Dr. Lajos Thanhoffer, a distinguished young teacher at the Budapest veterinary school, one of the most thorough scholars of physiology and histology in Hungary, has completely redesigned the Marey sphygmograph (pulsometer), or rather, he has constructed a more perfect sphygmograph in its place, because he has kept only the clock and the ramp of the Marey pulsometer. Dr. L. Thanhoffer took a sample of his own sphygmograph to Paris, where he visited the exhibition and had it made by Breguet. On his way to Paris, he presented the specimen to the famous Voith in Munich, who not only praised it with the highest praise, but also immediately arranged for the use of the Thanhoffer pulsometer in his investigations instead of the Marey sphygmograph. More recently, Ziemsen, the director of the Munich Hospital, one of the most famous internists in practice and theory, also approached both Breguet in Paris and Dr. Lajos Thanhoffer in Budapest to obtain his sphygmograph. We wholeheartedly congratulate the young scientist on this fine success, and hope that, in spite of his excessive modesty, he will allow us not to keep silent on this news, which is a credit to Hungarian scholarship.” (Source: Ellenőr. Esti kiadás, 1878. okt. 25. 639. sz. [p. 2.])
Further reading: Thanhoffer Lajos: Az érverésről : önálló vizsgálatok alapján. (Előadta a III. osztály ülésén 1878. decz. 4. s kidolgozva beadta 1878. január havában.) In: Értekezések a természettudományok köréből. IX. Budapest : A M. Tud. Akadémia Könyvkiadó-hivatala, 1879. 84 p. Richly illustrated
Éva Orbán
