August von Jilek August von Jilek ( 28 August 1819 – 8 November 1898 ) , otherwise August Jilek or Jileck , was a Czech naval doctor , lecturer and administrator . He was born at Litomyšl in Bohemia , now in the Czech Republic , where the Jilek surname can be traced back to the 15th century . He studied medicine at Vienna and after qualifying as a doctor he joined the Austrian Imperial - Royal Navy on 23 October 1845 . Information . Nothing is known about Jilek ’ s early years in the Navy . He first came to prominence when he was chosen to fill the post of personal physician to the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian ( 1832 – 1867 ) . The occasion may have been Maximilian ’ s entry into the Navy and service aboard " SMS Novara " in 1851 . In October 1852 , Jilek was appointed senior doctor at the newly designated Naval Academy ( former Cadet College ) at Pola ] ] in Istria , now part of Croatia , where he also lectured on oceanography . In March 1856 the Archduke Maximilian , by then Commander in Chief of the Navy , laid the foundation stones for a new Arsenal and a new Academy building , and in July 1857 Jilek completed the textbook on oceanography for Academy students for which he is best known today . [ [ File : Jilek title page small . gif | 185px | thumb | right | Title page of Jilek ' s " Textbook of Oceanography " ( 1857 ) . Jilek was not an original scientist in this field . He was probably commissioned by the Archduke to prepare a survey of the newly emerging science and that is what , within his limitations , he achieved . Much of the book is given over to general geographical descriptions of the world ’ s oceans , for which Jilek may have drawn on versions of Kant ’ s unpublished lectures on geography that were produced in the early 19th century . Another source was certainly [ [ Eduard Bobrik ] ] ’ s multi - volume manual of [ [ seamanship ] ] , navigation and oceanography – the first book to use that word in its title . In 1848 the second , revised edition of Bobrik ’ s manual had included sections on oceanography , hydrography , ‘ aerography ’ and [ [ magnetism ] ] . But time and again when Jilek addressed the major physical processes which govern the oceans , the true subject of oceanography , he was obliged to declare that no one yet understood them . However he made a reasonable job of explaining the methods and preliminary results that had recently been presented by [ [ Matthew Fontaine Maury ] ] in his " Wind and Current Charts " , and had then been enlarged upon in Maury ’ s masterpiece " The Physical Geography of the Sea " , first translated into German in 1856 . Book . Evidence for the diffusion of Maury ’ s ideas in the Austrian Navy after this point can be found in the narrative of the " Novara " ’ s circumnavigation ( 1857 – 1859 ) , and in a more lucid exposition of them which was published at Pola in 1867 . Notwithstanding the latter , Jilek ’ s textbook probably remained in use at the Academy for about twenty years . Jilek ’ s unassuming guide was only the second German book , and perhaps the second in the world , to have the word ‘ oceanography ’ in its title . It is now extremely rare . None of the great national libraries of Europe or North America seems to have a copy , not even the [ [ Austrian National Library ] ] . Examples can be consulted at Barcelona , Chicago , Frankfurt and Kiel , and presumably several naval training colleges , maritime museums and institutes of oceanography also have copies . The one shown on this page formerly belonged to Lieutenant Ludwig von Czirer , a Hungarian who joined the Imperial - Royal Navy as a cadet in 1872 . On 4 October 1863 Jilek was transferred to administrative duties in the Ministry ( later Department ) of the Navy , where he became director of the medical branch ( 1871 ) and rose to the rank of Admiral ( 1 November 1888 ) before retiring in March 1894 . Contributions to Naval Medicine . Jilek ’ s achievements in naval medicine included the publication of two studies of malaria , a disease which was endemic to Istria , and in 1868 he wrote a report on [ [ gastroenteritis ] ] which may have been an internal Navy Department document . He oversaw the introduction of [ [ Joseph Lister , 1st Baron Lister | Listerian ] ] [ [ antisepsis ] ] and the professionalization of the service , that is , the replacement of the earlier ship ’ s surgeons , often little more than medical orderlies , with fully qualified doctors . Jilek ’ s regular duties were partly or completely interrupted when he accompanied the Archduke on board " SMS Novara " for a botanical cruise to Brazil in 1860 , then joined his household at the palace of [ [ Miramare ] ] outside Trieste , 130 km from Pola , and finally when he escorted his patron , now Emperor Maximilian I , to Mexico in 1864 . Maximilian appointed two subsequent personal physicians during his brief reign in Mexico . Since Jilek had not left the service of Austria it is reasonable to assume that he returned directly from Vera Cruz with the " Novara " . There is no evidence that Jilek married or had children , or that he did not . He died at Trieste on 8 November 1898 . As a result of Jilek ’ s trip to Brazil a species of [ [ passion flower ] ] , " Passiflora jilekii Wawra " , was named after him in 1863 . He was knighted ( [ [ Iron Cross ] ] ) in 1867 , but whether before or after Maximilian ’ s execution on 19 June of that year is not known . References . [ [ Category : 1819 births ] ] [ [ Category : 1898 deaths ] ] [ [ Category : Czech physicians ] ] [ [ Category : Oceanography ] ] [ [ Category : Austro - Hungarian Navy officers ] ] [ [ Category : Czech military physicians ] ]