Ludwig Lewin Jacobson - Later Life

Later Life

In 1833 the Académie des Sciences awarded Jacobson one of the Monthyon prizes (4,000 francs), having previously awarded him a gold medal for his important researches into the venal system of the kidneys in birds and reptiles. On the death of the English anatomist Sir Everard Home, Jacobson became his successor as a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences. In 1836 he was elected an honorary member of the Kongelige Medicinske Selskab, the Royal Medical Society (of Denmark).

Jacobson was created a knight of the Danebroge in 1829, and he received the silver cross of the same order in 1836. He was also honored with decorations from several foreign potentates. In spite, however, of all the flattering recognition that he received, Jacobson felt depressed because he as a Jew was barred from the University of Copenhagen. A professorship had been offered him on the condition that he embrace Christianity, but he refused to abandon the faith of his fathers. His religious belief prevented also his accepting a special invitation to attend the first meeting of natural scientists to be held in Christiania (Oslo) in 1822, because at that time the edict forbidding Jews to stay in Norway was still in force. In 1840, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He died in Copenhagen in 1843.