Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow

Life and work

The story behind the role.

Austrian physician (1846–1891).

Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow, also Ernst Fleischl von Marxow (5 August 1846, Vienna – 22 October 1891, Vienna), was an Austrian physiologist and physician who became known for his important investigations on the electrical activity of nerves and the brain. "He also invented various optical measuring instruments, such as the spectropolarimeter and the hematometer." Fleischl-Marxow is remembered for Sigmund Freud's prescribing cocaine to treat his morphine addiction, which resulted in Fleischl-Marxow's becoming addicted to cocaine as well as morphine. He was born as Ernst Fleischl, the son of Karl Fleischl (1818–1893) and his wife Ida (née Marx). In 1875, Karl Fleischl was ennobled by Emperor Franz Joseph and granted the hereditary title of "Edler von Marxow" in the Austrian nobility. His son's style therefore changed to Ernst Fleischl Edler von Marxow, which he usually used in shortened form as Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow. Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow studied medicine in the University of Vienna, Austria. He started his scientific career as a research assistant in the laboratory of Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke (1819–1892), and later as an assistant, in the same university, to the eminent pathologist Carl von Rokitansky (1804–1878). However, an accident while he was dissecting a cadaver injured his thumb, which became infected and had to be amputated, interrupting his activities in anatomical pathology. Thus, he had to turn to physiology, and he came back to von Brücke's laboratory in Vienna after studying for a year with Carl Ludwig (1816–1895), another famous physiologist at the University of Leipzig, Germany, obtaining his doctoral degree in medicine in 1874. In the first phase of his career in neurophysiology, Fleischl-Marxow dedicated himself to electrophysiology of nerves an…

A most distinguished man, for whom both nature and upbringing have done their best. Rich, trained in all physical exercises, with the stamp of genius in his energetic features, handsome, with fine feelings, gifted with all the talents, and able to form an original judgment on all matters, he has always been my ideal and I could not rest till we became friends and I could experience pure joy in his ability and reputation. (cited in Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, Volume I, VI.) At the time Freud was studying the medical properties of cocaine, and was convinced that cocaine could be not only used as mild euphoriant, aphrodisiac and analgesic, but also as a treatment for morphine addicts. He recommended this to his friend Fleischl-Marxow, who proceeded to fall even deeper into the abyss of addiction. Devastated by pain, addiction, and disease, he relapsed and began using morphine again. Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow died on October 22, 1891, at 45 years of age. Freud wrote about him, without citing his name, in his analysis of Irma's injection in Interpretation of Dreams.

Encyclopaedic excerpts from Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow; shortened for length and available under CC BY-SA 4.0.