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Karl Ferdinand von Grafe

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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KARL FERDINAND VON GRAFE (1787-1840), German surgeon, was born at Warsaw on the 8th of March 1787. He studied medicine at Halle and Leipzig, and after obtaining licence from the Leipzig university, he was in 1807 appointed private physician to Duke Alexius of Anhalt-Bernburg. In 1811 he became professor of surgery and director of the surgical clinic at Berlin, and during the war with Napoleon he was superintendent of the military hospitals. When peace was concluded in 1815, he resumed his professorial duties. He was also appointed physician to the general staff of the army, and he became a director of the Friedrich Wilhelm Institute and of the MedicoChirurgical Academy. He died suddenly on the 4th of July 1840 at Hanover, whither he had been called to operate on the eyes of the crown prince. Grafe did much to advance the practice of surgery in Germany, especially in the treatment of wounds. He improved the rhinoplastic process, and its revival was chiefly due to him. His lectures at the university of Berlin attracted students from all parts of Europe.

The following are his principal works: Normen fiir die Ablosung grosser Gliedmassen (Berlin, 1812); Rhinoplastik (1818); Neue Beitrdge zur Kunst Theile des Angesichts organisch zu ersetzen (1821); Die epidemisch-kontagiose Augenblennorrhoe Agyptens in den europdischen Befreiungsheeren (1824); and Jahresberichte fiber das klinisch-chirurgisch-augenarztliche Institut der Universitc t zu Berlin (1817-1834). He also edited, with Ph. von Walther, the Journal fur Chirurgie and Augenheilkunde. See E. Michaelis, Karl Ferdinand von Gaffe in seiner 30jeihrigen Wirken fiir Staat and Wissenschaft (Berlin, 1840).