American Medical Biographies/Beck, Carl
Beck, Carl (1856–1911)
Carl Beck, professor of surgery at the New York Post-Graduate School of Medicine and visiting surgeon to St. Mark's Hospital, was born in Neckargemünd, Germany, April 4, 1856. After graduating at the gymnasium of Heidelberg in 1874 he studied medicine at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Jena and obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the last named university in 1878. For a few years he practised medicine in his native town but emigrated to America in 1882 and settled in New York. He soon gained a name as a skilful surgeon. When Roentgen discovered the X-rays Beck was one of the first to introduce their use in surgery. He wrote numerous articles on this subject in English and German. For the last twenty years of his life Beck was professor of surgery at the New York Post-Graduate School of Medicine. He was also president of the German Medical Society of New York and of the American Therapeutic Society.
Beck was a prolific writer and published numerous articles in American and German medical journals. He is the author of the following books: "Fractures, with an Appendix on the Use of the Roentgen Rays" (1900), "Roentgent Ray Diagnosis and Therapy" (1904), "Principles of Surgical Pathology for the Use of Students" (1905) and "Surgical Diseases of the Chest" (1907).
Beck was a highly cultured man, possessed of a wide knowledge, urbane and pleasing in his manners. He was of an idealistic turn of mind. He spurned the chase after money and in his leisure hours found pleasure in the arts and in literature. He himself wrote "Der Schwabenkonrad," a novel in German, in which he described the vicissitudes of one of his ancestors during the Thirty Years' War.
Dr. Beck married Miss Hedwig Loeser in 1881 and they had two children.
He died in Pelham Heights, N. Y., June 9,