Henryk Kadyi

Henryk Karol Klemens Kadyi (23 May 1851 – 25 October 1912) was a comparative anatomist and histologist from Austria-Hungary. He contributed to studies of the thyroid and the vascular system associated with the spinal cord. He established the use of heavy metal salts like uranyl acetate for the staining of nerve and brain tissues.

Biography

Kadyi was born in Przemyśl in the intellectual family of clerk Ludwik Kadyi and Klementyna. A brother Jozef became a physician while another, Juliusz, became a court counselor (Hofrat). Kadyi went to the Lviv Gymnasium and then went to study medicine in 1870 at the Jagiellonian University but graduated from the University of Vienna in 1875. He was an anatomy demonstrator at the Josephinum under Karl Langer from 1873 to 1875. His early work was on the veins of the arm. He also studied ophthalmology under Carl Ferdinand Ritter von Arlt (1812–1887) and surgery under Christian Albert Theodor Billroth (1829–1894). He returned to Krakow and worked under Ludwik Karol Teichmann (1823–1895). In 1878 he became a professor after defending a dissertation “On the eye of mole in the aspect of comparative anatomy”. He was noted for his skills in specimen preparation and awarded a scholarship with studies across Austria and Germany including at the Leipzig Zoological Institute. In Vienna, he worked with Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Claus (1835–1899). In Prague, he worked with Carl Toldt (1840–1920) and at Leipzig with Karl Georg Friedrich Rudolf Leuckart (1822–1898) and Wilhelm His (1831–1904). He was unfortunately unable to attend embryology lectures by Oscar Hertwig (1849–1922) and Richard Wilhelm Karl Theodor Ritter von Hertwig (1850–1937) who were then in Italy. He attended lectures on invertebrates by Carl Chun (1852–1914), vertebrates by Hermann von Ihering (1850–1930) and on embryology by Wilhelm His. He returned to Krakow and made use of his connections and experience to establish anatomical and histological studies at Lvov from 1881 to 1890. He helped establish scientific veterinary medicine as an academic discipline. He published his ideas on reforming veterinary studies in Polish and German. From 1894 to 1912 Kadyi was a professor of descriptive and topographical anatomy at Lvov University. His organization skills were recognized and he was elected Rector Magnificus for 1898–99. Along with Adolf Abraham Beck he made it possible for women to be admitted into medical studies. As an expert dissector and anatomist he was often asked to help in embalming the bodies of Polish nobility including Włodzimierz Ksawery Tadeusz Dzieduszycki (1825–1899). He died from infection acquired while embalming the body of Count Stanisław Badeni. His position at the University of Lvov was succeeded by Józef Markowski.

Kadyi developed a method of staining nerve cells and gray matter using uranyl acetate. He organized the 10th Congress of medical doctors and Poland.

Kadyi married Rozalia and they had a daughter Jadwiga who died in 1917.