einige der wichtigsten Krankheiten der Arterien, one of the first occasions on which arteriosclerosis was discussed in public.[32] In 1866 he became vice-president, and from 1869 to 1878 served as President of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna, which he described as the "greatest honour that I enjoy". From 1870 Rokitansky served as first President of the Supreme Sanitary Council and as president of the newly founded Anthropological Society in Vienna. Philosophical career Although Rokitansky defended the "materialistic method" in scientific research, he rejected materialism as a philosophical world view. In his commemorative speech on the occasion of the opening of the Institute of Pathological Anatomy at the General Hospital of Vienna, he warned against the abuse of "natural science liberties". Scientists should first regard humans as "conscious and free-willing subjects" and only then follow their urge toward knowledge. The feeling of humanity would be lost if physicians regarded human beings purely as research objects. Thus Rokitansky brought up for the first time the question of ethics in medicine. In another speech about the "solidarity of all animal life", delivered at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Rokitansky showed his proximity to Arthur Schopenhauer's writings on compassion: "if we [... ] preserve and practice compassion", he explained "we are able to alleviate part of the load of suffering" of patients. Human generosity will be shown by our capability to accept the greatest sufferings by voluntarily renouncing aggression. Those who succeed in this should be our greatest ethical role models." He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1862. In 1845, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. On 17 July 1848 Rokitansky was elected as an effective member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. In 1866, he became its vice-president and from 1869 until his death in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, on 23 July 1878, its president. Rokitansky felt that this "was the largest honour which I could enjoy". Family In 1834 Rokitansky married the internationally recognized concert singer Marie Weis (1806-1888). She was a student of Antonio Salieri (1770–1825), who gave her free singing lessons because of her special talent. She sang with Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt, She taught her two eldest sons, the Opera Singer, Hans von Rokitansky (1835–1909), and the concert singer and composer Victor von Rokitansky (1836–1896). The two younger sons studied medicine. Karl Rokitansky (1839–1898), became