Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Karl Ferdinand von Gräfe

GRÄFE, Karl Ferdinand von (1787-1840), German surgeon, was born at Warsaw, 8th March 1787. He studied medicine at Halle and Leipsic, and after obtaining licence from the latter university, he was in 1807 appointed private physician to Duke Alexius of Anhalt-Bernburg. In 1811 he became professor of surgery at Berlin, and during the war with Napoleon he was superintendent of the military hospitals. When peace was concluded in 1815, he resumed his professorial duties. He was also appointed to the medical staff of the army, and he became a director of the Frederick-William Institute, and of the Medico-Chirurgical Academy. He died suddenly, 4th July 1840, at Hanover, whither he had been called to operate on the eyes of the crown-prince. Von Gräfe did much to advance the practice of surgery in Germany, especially in the case of wounds, both by the invention of new instruments and the discovery of new methods of treatment. He improved the rhinoplastic process, and its revival was chiefly due to him. His lectures at the university of Berlin attracted students from all parts of Europe.

The following are his principal works:—Normen für die Ablösung grosser Gliedmassen, Berlin, 1812; Rhinoplastik, 1818; Neue Beitrage zur Kunst Theile des Angesichts organisch zu ersetzen, 1821; Die epidemisch-kontagiöse Augenblennorrhöe Ægyptens in den europaischen Befreiungsheeren, 1824; Jahresberichte über das klinisch-chirurgisch-augenarztliche Institut der Universität zu Berlin, 1817-34. He also edited, along with Ph. von Walther, the Journal für Chirurgie und Augenheilkunde.