The dissertation on pain by Jan Křtitel Boháč published in 1746

Abstract

ABSTRACTIt is reported that continuous attention to the topic of pain in the Czech lands started only in the sixties of the twentieth century. Newly discovered archival documents show, however, that the subject of pain was studied at the Prague Medical Faculty more than 200 years before. In 1746 one of the medical students, Jan Křtitel Boháč (John Baptist Bohadsch) defended his dissertation on pain, titled “De Doloribus in Genere.” Unlike other dissertations of the time, Boháč’s treatise was not a mere transcription of the teaching texts. A detailed examination of his dissertation shows that it contained a thesis for a disputation, an act that took place regularly at that time during university study. Only 22 years old, Boháč showed in his dissertation a perfect knowledge of the contemporary literature, providing a more accurate classification of the causes and effects of pain. He also disagreed with statements and conclusions of authorities at the beginning of the eighteenth century and even offered his own opinion. The present work summarizes the concept of the nervous system and pain in the middle of the eighteenth century and compares them with the translation of selected parts of Boháč’s formerly unknown dissertation.