Bloch was born in Frauenberg (today Hluboká nad Vltavou, Czech Republic), studied medicine in Prague and then served as a medical officer in the Austrian army. In 1899 he was stationed in Linz and opened a private doctor’s practice after his discharge in 1901 in the baroque house at 12 Landstrasse, where he also lived with his family: his wife, Emilie (née Kafka) and their daughter Trude, born in 1903. According to Linz’s future mayor Ernst Koref, Bloch was held in high regard, particularly among the lower and indigent social classes. It was generally known that at any time at night he was willing to call on patients. He used to go on visits in his hansom, wearing a conspicuous broad-brimmed hat. Like most Jews in Linz at the time, the Bloch family were assimilated.Thyroid hormones