The influcence of American surgery on Europe.

  • Carl Beck
Date:
[1906]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The influcence of American surgery on Europe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    from the windows of the auditorium of celebrated philologists and in Berlin numerous Bohemian Fruit Stores are found, although a fruit store in the capital of the German empire must naturally be German. It is not the maker who is surgical, but the instrument, and it is not the store which is Bohemian but the fruit. To the same etymological jurisdiction belongs der duerre Zwetschgenhaendler. The proposition of Professor Kraus, to request the government to demand more particulars as far as the statistics on the morbidity as well as the mortality of appendicitis are concerned, fell on fruitful ground. The Secretary of State, who honored the meetings by his presence, promised to see to it, that every German physician should be provided with question blanks for the purpose of entering the de- tails of his experience, especially regarding diagnosis and operative treatment of appendicitis. In this respect Germany may serve as a model, and while the American physicians do not need as much eluci- dation in reference to appendicitis as the German, it will be of general benefit were they to adopt the same plan. Another sign of American influence is found in Berlin. There the physiognomies of the good old Charite, the venerable temple of Aesculapius of the Berlin University and its neighbor, the anatomical institute, have greatly changed since last year. A score of large, modern buildings was erected, Orth's pathological institute, Hilde- brand's surgical, Henoch's pediatric and Lesser's dermatological clinics simply representing the best and most progressive institutions of their kind. There is in fact a remarkable combination of architectonic beauty and general usefulness. The greatest progress, however, being made in Berlin at the present time is represented by the new anatomical institute. No American should fail to visit it, not only because it is a real delight to look at it, but especially for the reason that its construction is based upon American ideas. We have all reason to be proud of the fact that Professor Waldeyer, the greatest anatomist of the present age, who has instructed most of our eminent teachers of anatomy, gives full credit to the excellence of the American institutions which he had visited twice during the last few years. The Americans such are Professor Waldeyer's own words, are ahead of us Germans in many respects. The idea of placing kitchen as well as operating and dissecting rooms under the roof, wherever it was practicable, struck me as an extremely good one and I made up my mind at once to persuade the Prussian government to adopt the American plan in the construction of the proposed new anatomical institute, that is, to provide for abundant light from above as well as from the side. How can we draw students from America, as long as our dissecting
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