Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 226-229. (Budapest, 1914)

TANULMÁNYOK - Južnič, Stanislav: Orvos a levegőben

PHYSICIAN IN THE SKY

STANISLAV JUZNIC

Background

(Mathias) Gregor Kraskovic (Kraschovic, Kraskowitz, * March 2, 1767 Studenec in Bloke in today Slovenia; f January 5. 1823 Pile in periphery of Dubrovnik) was one of the best physicians of his era. He pioneered the manned balloon flights and focused his research on the medical circumstances of aeronaut in higher regions of the atmosphere.

Kraskovic’s achievements are well known and several web pages are devoted to his work. His activity was recently described in leading Hungarian medical journal.1 Still there was no concise information on Kraskovic’s Slovenian origin before our study. Several printed sources put Kraskovic’s birthplace to Camiola, although some other do not share that opinion. Our study tried to confirm the Camiolan hypothesis.

Gregor Kraskovic’s family name was spelled in different ways (Kraschovic, Kraskowitz) and sometimes his other personal name Mathias was added. That kind of information confuses modem reader. There were some doubts if the Ljubljana student, Viennese student of medicine (1792-1796), Viennese physician, Kingdom of Hungary Varazdin district physician (1799-1804), scientific writer, translator, Dalmatian district physician, and Dubrovnik district physician describing the detonation under the Island Mljet (1822) was one and the same person bearing the family name Kraskovic. Our study tried to confirm the hypothesis of singular person behind all those deeds.

Results

There are only two exact proofs for Carniola origin of the physician Gregor Kraskovic. The first is note on his matriculation in Viennese university (Medical faculty) in 1792 which also indicate the parish of Kraskovic’s birth which was Bloke in inner Carniola.1 2 The other is newspaper report on his Viennese balloon flight accomplished on November 20, 1814. There were many journal reports on that flight of the physician Kraskovic. The reports were published in Habsburg Monarchy and Germany, but only the December 14, 1814 report in Laibacher Wochenblatt with a reprint in Laibacher Tagblatt on August 30,1879 put forward Kraskovic’s Caniolan origin.

1 Kiss, László. Orvosok a levegőben 1811-ben - Menner és Kraskovics doktorok légi útja Pesten és Pozsonyban. Orvosi Hetilap. Physicians in the sky in 1811 - the flight of Menner and Kraskovics MDs in Pest and Pressburg: 152 (2011)26,5, 13,1052-5.

2 Hauptmatrikel, 1792, Archiv der Universität Wien, report of MMag. Martin G. Enne, Archiv der Universität Wien, Postgasse 9, A-1010 Wien, No. UA-Zl. 2012-1358-03-en and UA-Zl. 2012-1358-05 dated 17/ 8/ 2012.