The medical prize was awarded to Austria's anatomy fanatic, Rokitansky. As a representative of the New Vienna School and a founder of modern anatomy, he had always maintained that true knowledge came from practice.
Historically, under Rokitansky's direction, from the time he earned his medical doctorate in 1827 until 1849, he and his assistants recorded a total of 59,786 anatomical cases over 22 years. Rumor had it that he personally took part in dissecting more than thirty thousand corpses, but in reality, only 12,113 cases bore the name Rokitansky.
When people mentioned the New Vienna School, they always thought of its "three musketeers of mental illness": Otto Weininger, Sigmund Freud, and Alfred Adler.
But in truth, Rokitansky was the one who had truly led the New Vienna School to glory. His Handbook of Pathological Anatomy and New Human Anatomy had opened a new chapter in the field of anatomy, while the many cases he documented provided evidence for the numerous conjectures of New Vienna School doctors at the time, making it possible for the school's ideas to flourish in all their variety.
Rokitansky's success also owed much to his favorable circumstances. Although the Austrian Empire was a Catholic country, it had always been tolerant of the medical community.
During the rampant epidemic of 1832, Rokitansky had even successfully persuaded Francis II to order the dissection of all those who died of unknown causes.
This decree allowed Austrian anatomy to reign supreme for decades afterward. Some said it was the wisest decision Francis II had ever made.
Historically, Rokitansky had also been a master sketch artist. In fact, that was easy to understand, since photography was still in its infancy at the time.
But things were different now. Rokitansky had gone from being a master sketch artist to an amateur photographer,