Graefe, Friedrich Wilhelm Albrecht Von (1828-1870)
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University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Cumming School of Medicine Cumming School of Medicine Research & Publications 2007 Graefe, Friedrich Wilhelm Albrecht von (1828-1870) Stahnisch, Frank W. Greenwood Stahnisch, F.: ,,Graefe, Friedrich Wilhelm Albrecht von (1828-1870)". In: Dictionary of Medical Biography (DMB). W. F. Bynum and Helen Bynum (eds.). Westport, CO, London: Greenwood 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 570-573. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/47290 Other Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca 570 GRAAF, REINIER DE cancer as well as the treatment of the diagnosed disease. ety in a letter of 28 April 1673. De Graaf, howcvcr, had by The NCI achieved developments in both research and then become entangled in painful disputes with Jan treatment under his leadership. Swammerdam over questior~sof priority relating to his His scientific work received international recognition, research on the male and female genital organs. and he was named Knight of the Portuguese Order of San- A surgeon and anatomist of unusual skill, de Graaf tiago, Doctor hotloris cntrsn by the University of Bordeaux, acquired lasting fame for his description of the female repro- Oficier de Irt Lkgiort d'hortnerir, and Honorary Fellow of the ductive organs, in particular for the idea that mammalian American College of Surgeons. eggs are formed in what we now know as the 'Graafian folli- Goyanes developed the intra-arterial regional anesthesia cles'. De Graaf examined successive stages of pregnancy in approach and various surgical techniques for the treatment rabbits and studied human ovaries as well as those of cows, of laryngeal cancer. He also published on the statistics, eti- sheep, and pigs. He described the process of ovulation with- ology, and pathogenesis of cancer. In addition to his clini- out being able to observe the egg itself (it was found only cal studies, he was a prolific writer of literature. He also much later, in 1827, by Karl Ernst von Baer). Others, includ- . published texts on the history of medicine, such as his pub- ing Niels Steno, had already suggested that the 'female testi- lications on MigueI Servet [Michael Servetus] (1511-53) cles' were in fact ovaries, but de Graaf's De rnt~lierutnorgnttic and Maimonides [Rabi Mosheh be11 Maimon] ( 1 135- of 1672 lent the idea scientific crcdibility. 1204), and on the portrayal of physicians in the works of De Graaf's experimental way of settling questions thc writer Francisco Quevedo (1580-1645). through observatian and experiment-a method that had . becornc popular among a group of Sylvius's Leiden students- ,. a Bibliography I. marked a new development in scientific inquiry. The'.- \' Prirmry: 1924. 'La lucha contra el cancer.' El Siglo MPdico 73: niethod was not devaed in opposition to any medical the-. ,j , .i 268-271. ory or school. Indeed, the pancreas experiment was sup- : posed to confirm one of Sylvius's iatrochernical views. The :' A Secondary: Fraga Vlizquez, XosC A., end Alfonso Mato pancreatic juice was thought to be the acid factor in a mix- Dominguez, 1993. Dicciottnrio histdrico das cieracios e cias ticnicus 1, ture of juices (the htrrnor tritmrviratns) that supposed&. k, do Gnlicin. ~rrtorcs(1868-1936) (Calicia); Medina-Domhech, ; caused a process of effervescence in the duodenum. Rosa Maria, 1996. iClrrnr el cdr~ccr?1.0s orige~esdc In Rndioterapin ++' Gradually improving his methods and discussins h + cr~el prirtier tcrcio del siglu XX (Granada). research findings with local colleagues who checkd A:. " Rosa Maria Medina-DomCnech reexamined them, de Graaf developed into a mu:-- appreciated experimentalist. Already renowned in hk 0%- GRAAF, REINIER DE (b. Schoonhoven, the Nether- time, his fame has stuck with later generations. Todal-. L'. lands, 30 July 1641; d. Delft, the Netherlands, 17 August main hospital in his hometown of Delft carries his nn;r11. 1673), a?lntorvy, physiology, Bibliography As a son of Catholic parents-Catharina van Breenen and Cornelis de Graaf-de Graaf went to study in Louvain Prirnary'1677. Opcrn orrrnin (Lciden); 1664. De srtcci pnrt:rr..qr in the Spanish Netherlands. In 1663 he exchanged Louvain rrntrrrfl er rrsir (Leiden); 1668. De virorrir~rorprrisgerrerntiar!: I*(. for Utrecht, where he studied medicine with Ysbrand van vientibrrs, de clysteribrts et dr rrsrr syphonis irr ~tiutorriin(Lrlt!r- Diemerbroek, but soon he set out for Leiden, matriculating 1672. De rtrlrlierrrr~rorgatzis gerrerntiorri irrservier~tibirs(Leid~i . at Leiden University on 5 April 1663. It was there that d; Secondnry: Houtzager, H. L., cd., 1991. Reitrrer de Grnol I"=! Graaf befriended Jan Swammerdam and Niels Steno, with 1673 (Rolterdarn); Lindeboom, G. A., 1975. 'Dog and Frog Ph-- whom he studied anatomy under Johannes van Horne and - ological Experiments at Leiden During the Seventeenth Centop Franciscus de le Boe, Sylvius. In 1664 de Graaf published Lunsingh Scheurleer, Th. H., and G. H. M. Posthumus LIP an account of the famous experiment that enabled him to eds., 1.eidcrz University in the Sclrntcerzth Cent~try.An Exckc- drain some juice from the pancreas of a living dog using a -- Learrrir~g(Leiden) pp. 278-293; DSB. fistula. He performed this experiment for audiences else- ~vhcrcand graduated while in Angers (France) on 23 July 4665. In 1666 he set up practice in Delft, where, on 14 June 1672, he married Maria van Dyck. Their firstborn son died GRAEFE, FRIEDRICH WILHELM ERNST in April 1673, only seven weeks old. Shortly after, de Graaf ALBRECHT VON (b. Bcrlin, Germany, 22 h4ay '' hin~selfcxpired at the age of thirty-two. d. Berlin, 20 July 1870), ophthaltnoiogy, snrgery. In Delft, de Graaf continued his innovative research. He Graefe was born in the Prussian capital of Berlin in '- experimented with the use of the needle and invented a Finkenheerd as the son of Carl Ferdinand von Graef: :-+ flexible tube that made it possible to apply enemas in pri- moderate noble family, which had established soci~r vate. It was from Delft, too, that de Graaf introduced his tions with many intellectuals and artists of the fellow citizen Antonie van Leeuwenhoek to the Royal Soci- including the writer Karl Immerrnann and the arcc -GRAEFE. FRIEDRICH WILHELM ERNST ALBRECHT VON 571 Friedrich Schinkel. His father was a rather fanious surgeon pelled to open a private ophthalmologic practice on 1 who directed the ~linisch-chirurgisch-a~~en~ntliches November 1851, a practice that was to become the mecca I Institut in the Surgical Clinic of Berlin University, from for many young ophthalmologists who came to practice j 1818. Carl Ferdinand persuaded his son to study medicine. with Graefe. in 1852 he was given the venia legetidi for sur- gery and ophthalmology at the Friedrich-Wilhelms- University of Berlin. His Habilitations thesis, u6er die Medical Training it'irkittlg der Aiigenrnrcskeln, was on the physiology of eye After going to the elitist French high school in his home movement. Being a Privatdozent at the clinic for surgery, I town, Albrecht Graefe graduated with his 'matura' at the Graefe was made the first full professor for ophthalmology ' early age of fifteen. Graefe took up his medical studies in in Germany in 1866. His university chair nrf personnm was 1843, at the Friedrich-Wiihelms-Universityof Berlin, and immediately withdrawn, however, after his death, because 1 lived in a small flat next to Oranienburger Tor and Chaus- of the perpetual financial crisis of the CharitC Hospital dur- 1 seestrasse. At the University Hospital, he was trained in the ing the nineteenth century, In addition, Graefe had stated most up-to-date methods in experimental medicine and in his will that his private clinic should only be continued if was the student ofthe anatomist and physiologist Johannes the state would take over the funding of its ongoing costs. Mueller, the physiologist Emil Du Bois-Reymond, and the This the'prussian administration refused. pathological anatomist Rudolf Virchow. Yet Graefe was also greatly influenced by the clinical approaches of Ludwig Ophthalmology and Ophthalmologic Surgery I Schoenlein, the surgeon Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach, and I a representative of the younger generation of university The surgeon Johann Christian Juengken, who was also in charge of minor ophthalmologic surgery and the oph- 1 teachers, Johann Christian Juengken, who mutually intro- duced the novices to the recently introduced type of thalmologic diseases in the outpatient department of the bedside-teaching and the 'rational' classification of internal CharitC Hospital, stepped down from his professorship in diseases. In 1847 Graefe graduated MD in Berlin with a dis- 1868. Graefe, who was already seriously ill at the time, was sertation De brorno ejusq~iepraesipnispraeparatis.His thesis given the directorship of thc CharitP Hospital's ophthalmo- was part of the research program of Juengken, who wanted logic clinic. Graefe died two years later from the effects of I to introduce a new kind of narcosis into surgery. Unfortu- lung tuberculosis, which he had contracted at the age of nately, while working in his private laboratory at Finken- thirty, and his death was marked with a small funeral ser- ! heerd, the experin~entalapparatus exploded, and Graefe vice at his place of birth. However, he left a wide legacy and : sustained serious lung injury from the bromine vapor. One had many pupils who were appointed to chairs in ophthal- , year later, however, he passed the state examinations and mology all over Germany and even in Switzerland. Typical was given the doctor's certificate to practice medicine. In is the case of Paul Heinrich Braunschweig, who worked as his case, this also included the right to perform general sur- assistant to Graefe until his academic teacher was given gery and surgical obstetrics. lust made a young medical emeritus status. Braunschweig went on to receive his venin doctor, he helped to stem the outbreak of a cholera epi- legetidi with an exclusiveIy oyhthaln~olo~ictopic: 06er die demic in Berlin.