1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gräfe, Karl Ferdinand von

GRÄFE, KARL FERDINAND VON (1787–1840), German surgeon, was born at Warsaw on the 8th of March 1787. He studied medicine at Halle and Leipzig, and after obtaining licence from the Leipzig university, he was in 1807 appointed private physician to Duke Alexius of Anhalt-Bernburg. In 1811 he became professor of surgery and director of the surgical clinic 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 physician to the general staff of the army, and he became a director of the Friedrich Wilhelm Institute and of the Medico-Chirurgical Academy. He died suddenly on the 4th of July 1840 at Hanover, whither he had been called to operate on the eyes of the crown prince. Gräfe did much to advance the practice of surgery in Germany, especially in the treatment of wounds. 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 Beiträge zur Kunst Theile des Angesichts organisch zu ersetzen (1821); Die epidemisch-kontagiöse Augenblennorrhoë Ägyptens in den europäischen Befreiungsheeren (1824); and Jahresberichte über das klinisch-chirurgisch-augenärztliche Institut der Universität zu Berlin (1817–1834). He also edited, with Ph. von Walther, the Journal für Chirurgie und Augenheilkunde. See E. Michaelis, Karl Ferdinand von Gräfe in seiner 30 jährigen Wirken für Staat und Wissenschaft (Berlin, 1840).