American Medical Biographies/Bettman, Boerne
Bettman, Boerne (1856–1906)
Boerne Bettman, an ophthalmologist of Chicago, known specially as an operator, was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 6, 1856, of Bavarian parents. His father, a general practitioner, was a graduate of the University of Munich, in 1836. Dr. Boerne Bettman, after a three-year course of study, under the preceptorship of his father, in the Miami Medical College, received his medical degree in 1877. He was then assistant, for a short time, to Dr. Elkanah Williams (q.v), the first professor of ophthalmology in the United States. Proceeding to New York, he studied for a time in the laboratory of Dr. Heitzman, and then for a year and a half was assistant to Dr. Herman Knapp (q.v.). For the next three years he studied in Europe. In Vienna, his teachers were Arlt, Stellwag, Jaeger, Mauthner, Fuchs, Politzer, Gruber and Storch. At Heidelberg, in 1879, he became the second assistant to Dr. Otto Becker. Later, he was made Becker's first assistant.
In 1887 he returned to America, and, settling in Chicago, was almost immediately successful. He was the first lecturer in ophthalmology and otology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago. This position he resigned, however, in 1883. He founded the Chicago Society of Ophthalmology and Otology, and assisted at the organization of the Chicago Medico-Legal Society. In 1892 he was made professor of ophthalmology and otology in the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons—a position which he held till nearly the time of his death. He was also, for a while, professor of ophthalmology and otology in the Chicago Post-Graduate Medical School. He served, moreover, as oculist and aurist to many of the Chicago hospitals.
Among his publications are the following:
"The Operative Treatment of Episcleritis," Weekly Med. Rev., Mar. 17, 1883; "Aural and Nasal Surgery," Jour. Amer. Med. Asso., Nov. 10, 1884; "Ocular Troubles of Nasal Origin," Jour. Amer. Med. Asso., Jan. 17, 1887; "Traumatic Iridodyalyses," No. Amer. Practitioner, Dec., 1890; "Dislocation of Lens into Anterior Chamber," Chicago Med. Record, June, 1891.
Dr. Bettman was a brilliant operator, and many are the stories of his skill and dexterity. Thus, having introduced his cataract knife with the edge turned downward, instead of up, he quickly "flopped" his blade, without withdrawing (as Knapp himself once did) nor lost a drop of aqueous. He was quick and active in his manner, sometimes abrupt, but really kind at heart. Like all true Jews, he was a patriot, and he loved to talk about the history of his country. He served as assistant surgeon, with the rank of captain, in the second regiment of the Illinois National Guard. He died a lingering and very painful death, but bore his sufferings bravely.
He passed away, May 25, 1906, at Chicago, aged only 50 years. Into that brief period, however, he had crowded the work of a century.