Christian Fenger / [Frank Billings].

  • Frank Billings
Date:
[1922]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Christian Fenger / [Frank Billings]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHRISTIAN FENGER was born at Breininggaard Breinige Sogn, Den¬ mark, November 3, 1840. He was one of twelve children born to Kam- merrand Hans Fritz Fenger and FrederrikeMathilde Fjelstrup, both repre¬ sentatives of excellent families and well-to-do farmers. All of the sons secured excellent educational advantages, but with self-help. In 1851 the boy Christian Fenger entered the Herlufsholm school and graduated therefrom in 1859. He had a great love for the natural sciences and entered the Polyteknisk Liireanstalt, beginning the course in civil engineering. After one year his father induced him to take up the study of medicine. In i860 he passed his first examination in anat¬ omy, zoology, chemistry, and botany and soon thereafter passed an examination in philosophy, cum laude. He partly earned his way by teaching in the Melchior high school and by tutoring dental and medical students. During the war between Denmark and Prussia, he became an assistant surgeon at the Augustenborg Lazareth. In 1865 he again took up the study of medicine and in this year passed an examination to practice medicine. During the next 3 years he acted as an assistant to Dr. Villem Meyer in clinical otology and collaborated in the investi¬ gation of adenoid vegetations in the nasopharynx. In 1869 he was appointed in¬ terne in the Royal Frederik’s Hospital for a two-year period. During this period he wrote a prize essay entitled “ Concerning Subperiosteal Operations and Evide- ment,” and also made fundamental experiments concerning gunshot wounds of horses at the Royal Veterinary College, and invented instruments for locating and extracting bullets from tissues. This experimental work was rewarded by a grant from the Royal Danish Ministry of War which enabled Fenger to take part in the Franco-German War. In January, 1871, he was appointed by Pro¬ fessor Socin, of Basel, to serve in the Red Cross International Ambulance and assigned to duty on the battlefield of Bourtaki-Werden (Haute-Saone). His ex¬ perience in the war enabled him to write a report on the endoscopy of gunshot wounds. Immediately after the war he studied pathological anatomy and attend¬ ed the surgical clinics at Vienna, and on his return to Denmark was appointed prosector to the Communehospital. In this position he continued until the end of 1874 during which time he took advantage of the splendid opportunities for investigation in pathology and morbid anatomy which was evidenced by the
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