Disputatio Physiologica de Masticatione, 1703

Christian Ludwig Welsch

(Feb 23, 1669-Jan 1, 1709)

Christian Ludwig Welsch was a young Professor at University of Leipzig, a Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy, member of the faculty at the University of Leipzig and patron/thesis mentor of the defending student whose dissertation this booklet is. He was one of 20 siblings born to Gottfried Welsch, a famous Physician, Professor at the University of Leipzig and President of University of Leipzig in 1665. Most likely Gottfried Welsch' father, Caspar Michael Welsch, was also president of the university before in 1639.

To understand the dissertation entitled Disputatio Physiologica de Masticatione, (which means A Treatise on the Physiology of the Mastication) one has to understand the process of the medieval doctoral defense. The professor's lecture notes (in this case Christian Ludwig Welsch) were distributed to students in the doctoral class. The course notes were condensed into questions and each doctoral candidate had to respond to those questions in writing, identifying what they understood from the course material. In effect, this was an open book written exam. Student responses were collated into a booklet which the student was asked to defend in public. Disputatio Physiologica de Masticatione contains 44 written answers from the student, Christian Riedelius (Riedel) from Strehlin (today Strzelin), Silesia, Poland), a doctoral student of Professor Christian Ludwig Welsch in Leipzig.

The 32 page booklet was printed and distributed to professors, guests, members of the senate and the student's classmates who were invited to the festive oral defense in the aula of the university in 1703. The book was published by the printer Johann Christoph Brandenburger from Leipzig.
^{Editorial notes by Andrew I Spielman}

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