Girtanner, christoph

(¤ 1760,  1800) General practitioner and syphilis researcher. Girtanner was the son of a merchant and banker in St. Gallen. Visit of the philanthropist in Marschlins. Since 1799 medical studies in Strasbourg and Göttingen. 1782 Doctorate in medicine. Subsequently general practitioner in St. Gallen. 1785-87 Travels to Southern France, Paris, London, Edinburgh and Strasbourg. From 1787, worked as a private scholar in Göttingen. His treatise on venereal diseases contains, in addition to the history and healing methods (vol.I), a chronological list of the writers of syphilis with writings listed and commented on in 1912. Girtanner also commented on the condom in 1789 as follows: "There is no word in German for such a shameful object".