Heinrich Johann Nepomuk von Crantz (Roodt, Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...

, November 25, 1722 – January 18, 1799, Judenburg

Judenburg

- People :* Renate Götschl* Egon Haar * Herbert Hufnagl, journalist * Gernot Jurtin* Christian Muthspiel, jazz musician, painter* Kurt Muthspiel, composer * Wolfgang Muthspiel* Christian Pfannberger* Walter Pfrimer* Georg Pichler...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

) was a botanist

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 and a physician

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

.

He obtained his doctorate of medicine in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 in 1750. He was one of the first pupils of Gerard van Swieten

Gerard van Swieten

Gerard van Swieten was a Dutch-Austrian physician.Van Swieten was born in Leiden. He was a pupil of Hermann Boerhaave and became in 1745 the personal physician of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. In this position he implemented a transformation of the Austrian health service and medical...

 (1700–1772).

He studied obstetrics

Obstetrics

Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...

 with André Levret

André Levret

André Levret was a French obstetrician who practised medicine in Paris. He was a contemporary of famed English obstetrician William Smellie , and along with Jean-Louis Baudelocque helped advance the science of obstetrics in 18th century France.Levret is considered by many the most influential...

 (1703–1780) and with Nicolas Puzos

Nicolas Puzos

Nicolas Puzos was a French obstetrician in the 18th Century.Puzos first started in medical studies in 1702 when his father sent him as an aide-major with the French army so he could learn surgery. He next studied under Julien Clément....

 (1686–1753) in Paris as well as in London.

He was first married to Anna Susanne Petrasch and then to Magda Lena de Tremon. He had two sons and one daughter.

He became a lecturer in obstetrics at St. Mary's Hospital in Vienna in 1754. From 1756 to 1774, he taught physiology

Physiology

Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...

 and medicine at the university in that city.

He was the author of Einleitung in eine Warhe und gegründete Hebammenkunst (1756), Commentarius de rupto in partus doloribus a foetu utero (1756), Commentatio de instrumentorum in arte obstetricia historia utilitate et recta ac praepostera applicatione (1757), De systemate irritabilitatis (1761), Materia medica et chirurgica (three volumes, 1762), De aquis medicatis principatus Transsylvaniae (1773), and Die Gesundbrunnen der Österreichischen Monarchie (1777).

He recommended better methods of hygiene

Hygiene

Hygiene refers to the set of practices perceived by a community to be associated with the preservation of health and healthy living. While in modern medical sciences there is a set of standards of hygiene recommended for different situations, what is considered hygienic or not can vary between...

 for midwives. In addition to his work in medicine, he studied chemistry, botany, and the sources of mineral water.