One of the strongest towns in Silesia it was besieged several times during the 17th and 18th centuries.
In 1847 he began to act as Privatdozent in the university, and founded with Reinhardt the Archiv fiir pathologische Anatomie and Physiologic, which, after his collaborator's death in 1852, he carried on alone, and in 1848 he went as a member of a government commission to investigate an outbreak of typhus in upper Silesia.
During the interval between these peaces, Matthias, in self-defence, again made war on the emperor, reducing Frederick to such extremities that he was glad to accept peace on any terms. By the final arrangement made between the contending princes, Matthias recognized Ladislaus as king of Bohemia proper in return for the surrender of Moravia, Silesia and Upper and Lower Lusatia, hitherto component parts of the Czech monarchy, till he should have redeemed them for 400,000 florins.
The nearest enemy was Bohemia, to whom Poland had lately been compelled to pay tribute for her oldest possession, Silesia.
The Polish coalfields belong to another Carboniferous area of deposit, which extended over Silesia.