THEODORE BILLROTH. 
A SHORT CHARACTER SKETCH OF GERMANY'S FAMOUS SURGEON. 
modern surgical amphitheatre of a great 
1 hospital is the arena where is fought the battle 
with death and disease, with pain, misfortune and 
deformity. An impressive spectacle it is ; tier upon 
tier of benches rising sharply one above the other, a 
sea of intelligent faces watching eagerly or indiffer- 
ently the busy scene below, the glistening instru- 
ments in their antiseptic baths, the jars, basins and 
sponges, the assistants going swiftly and silently 
about their preparations, and in the center of all, the 
moving spirit, the nineteenth century gladiator, bare- 
ar med and white-aproned, the operator himself. 
BILLROTH'S CLINIC. 
Perhaps the most famous clinic in the world was 
the late Dr. Theodore Billroth's in the University of 
Vienna. To it came students from every civilized 
land to learn the methods and listen to the teachings 
of the great professor. 
The discipline in his clinic was that of an army, the 
result, possibly, of his long military service. A mar- 
tinet, of few words, cold in manner, though sympa- 
thetic and tender with his patients, he gave himself 
little concern as to details, exacting from every one of 
his ten assistants the perfect performance of the 
duties assigned to him, seldom troubling himself to 
bestow a word of praise, while a rebuke from him, 
usually couched in the words, " But, Doctor," came 
to be considered almost a disgrace. In operating he 
w;is cool and almost cold blooded, swift, alert and 
dexterous. His methods were often unique, so much 
so his name occurs in modern works on surgery con- 
tinually, perfecting or improving some operation. His 
greatest fame was reached in 1881, when he performed 
for the first time successfully excision of the pyloric 
end of the stomach for cancer. This achievement 
made his reputation world-wide, and easily placed 
him in a commanding position as a bold and success- 
ful operator. He soon came to be considered the first 
surgeon in Europe, and his clinic became renowned 
for the number and character of the operations per- 
formed by him. 
Billroth cared little for money getting, the utmost 
difficulty often being encountered in persuading him 
to take charge of a case which gave no promise of 
interest or importance. As a consultant he was in 
demand in every continental capital of Europe, from 
St. Petersburg to Rome, occasionally journeying as 
far as Western Asia or even Egypt to give the benefit 
of his vast knowledge and experience. Honors had 
as few temptations for him as pecuniary reward, 
though many were thrust upon him in the shape 
of decorations, Russian, Austrian, Turkish, German, 
Roumanian, and the Emperor Francis Joseph in rec- 
ognition of his eminence made him a member of the 
Austrian legislature. 
HIS PERSONALITY. 
In personal appearance Billroth was a little above 
the medium height, with a broad, intellectual face 
half hidden by a thick, flowing beard, blue eyes, small 
but sharp anil piercing, and shoulders bent from long 
DR. BILLROTH. 
years of study. He was not, strictly speaking, a great 
teacher. His sentences were terse, delivered without 
raising his voice, and interesting more from the suliject 
matter contained in them than from any peculiar 
charm in their delivery. The respectful attention with 
which his lectures were received and the absolute 
silence which reigned while he was speaking, he com- 
manded without an effort. His success lay chiefly 
with his more advanced students and with the doctors 
who were pursuing special courses under his guidance 298 
THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 
rather than with the beginners. His generosity and 
open handedness, aside from the personal fascination 
of the man and the glamour of his name, increased his 
popularity among both his assistants and students. It 
is said that he was in the habit of aiding the needy 
students whose pinched faces attracted his attention 
by throwing profitable work in their way. It is at 
least certain that the assistants profited largely by 
his unwillingness to undertake a case with little 
promise of interest. "Oh, go to Dr. So-and-so," he 
would say when pressed to treat such a patient. 
EARLY LIFE. 
Christian Albert Theodor Billroth was born April 
26, 1829. at Bergen on the island of Huge. His 
father was a Lutheran minister, and from his earli- 
est youth both parents' efforts were directed toward 
guiding his steps into a professional career. His 
own inclinations, perhaps, would have led him to 
enter upon a life devoted to music, for which he 
showed very early a passionate fondness, but the re- 
mote possibility of the stage was enough to excite the 
pastor's family to violent opposition, and in 1848 he 
began his studies at the University of Greifswald. 
From there he went first to Gottingen and afterward 
to Berlin, where he received his degree of M. D. in 
1852, on a thesis describing a pulmonary affection re- 
sulting from section of the vagus nerve. He decided 
to complete and round out his education by visits to 
other centres, and accordingly we find him journey- 
ing to Vienna and Paris. Shortly after he returned 
to Berlin, and became the assistant of von Laugen- 
beck, the greatest German surgeon of his time. 
Billroth began to fit himself for teaching, and in 
1856 his labors were rewarded by the position of 
privat-docent in the university. Other opportuni- 
ties presented themselves, notably at Zurich, where he 
was installed as full professor and chief of clinic. 
There he remained until 1867, since when he has oc- 
cupied a similar position in the famous Vienna Uni- 
versity. His life in the Austrian capital was not un- 
broken, for the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war 
recalled him to the Fatherland to assume charge of 
the military hospitals on the Rhine, at Weissenburg 
and Nannheim. After the siege of Paris and the close 
of the struggle he lost no time in returning to his 
chair at Vienna, where he continued until his death. 
His health had not been good for eight or nine years 
past, since an alarming attack of pneumonia, and he 
went to Abbazia, a well-known Austrian winter 
resort, to recruit his failing powers, where he died 
suddenly and peacefully on February 6, of debility 
due to heart trouble. 
IN HIS VIENNA HOME. 
A wife and three daughters, of whom only the 
second is married, survive him. The eldest daughter 
was the favorite, their friends often remarking that 
the relation between them seemed more that of 
brother and sister than parent and child. They kept 
open house, entertained lavishly and made their home 
a salon where all the musical celebrities of Vienna, 
notably Brahms, Henschel and Saint-Saens, were ac- 
customed to assemble. Billroth himself was an ex- 
cellent pianist, though he seldom appeared as a per- 
former. Still he was a charming host and an atten- 
tive listener and the concerts he gave attracted the 
best artists of the city. Brahms and the Doctor were 
fast friends, the composer often treating his friends 
to a first performance of his compositions in his house. 
This style of entertainment and the expensive mode 
of living prevented any appreciable saving, so that 
when his illness awoke Dr. Billroth to a realizing 
sense of the possibility of his own death and the finan- 
cial straits in which his family would be left, he deter- 
mined on retrenchment and moved immediately into 
a flat, giving up his home and extravagance in living. 
Although so famous and so widely consulted, his 
practice was not large, owing to the peculiarities we 
have mentioned, and it is unlikely the change was 
made in time to permit him to accumulate even a 
competency. 
HIS ACHIEVEMENTS. 
Dr. Billroth entered upon the practice of his pro- 
fession at a time when antiseptic surgery was in its 
infancy, when or before Lister made his great dis- 
coveries, and throughout his whole life much of 
the brilliancy of his success has been due to his 
championship of its principles. His early work was, 
in fact, more of the surgical pathologist than of the 
active operator, as can easily be seen from his numer- 
ous writings on bacteriological and pathological sub- 
jects. He was a prolific author, writing with the 
absolute ease that comes of a thorough knowledge of 
one's subject and long practice. It is said that he 
never hesitated, never waited for a reference. They 
were at his finger's end. One of the more widely 
quoted of his papers was his treatise on "Wound 
Fever; " but the volume which called forth most 
discussion and not a little unfavorable criticism was 
entitled " Teaching and Learning in German 
Schools." The work was translated into five or six 
European tongues, read and commented upon every- 
where. In it he takes it upon himself to lay severe 
strictures on the Jews, and it was these anti-Semitic 
utterances (entirely foreign to his life and friendships) 
which brought down upon him the storm of indigna- 
tion. 
It is well to have lived, if, in dying, one's name is 
left inscribed where the sons of men may read and be 
incited to more arduous and better work. Bill- 
roth's pluck and daring won him first place among 
the surgeons of modern Germany, some say of the 
world. His name will always be identified with the 
advance of surgical science, with the alleviation of 
human misery, and is one to be written with that of 
Sims and of Lister. The REVIEW of REVIEWS, American Edition, Edited by Albert Shaw 
The Review of Reviews is published each month in New York and London, the two editions differing in many features, 
but publishing numerous articles in common. The English Edition is edited by W. T. Stead, 
Mowbray House, Norfolk St., Strand, London. 
CONTENTS FOR MARCH. 1894. 
Professor Billroth's Clinic Frontispiece 
The Progress of the World- 
Brazil's Unfought Naval Battle 259 
Status of the Insurgents 259 
Admiral Benham's Performance 261 > 
The Wreck of the Kearsarge.................... 261 
Robert Stein's Arctic Expedition 262 
To Study Ellesmere Land 262 
To Rescue Bjorling's Party 263 
Mr. Stein's Plan of Operations 264 
Captain Wiggins' Siberian Voyage 264 
Exploration Beyond Hudson Bay 264 
Progress with the Tariff Bill 265 
Hawaii Again 265 
Silver and the- Seigniorage 266 
Mr. Peckham's Defeat 267 
Vindicating an Honest Ballot 267 
Is Gladstone to Retire ? 268 
War Upon the House of Lords 268 
Kaiser and Ex-Kanzler 268 
" The Peasant Emperor " 269 
France Solidifying 269 
Anarchists Still at Work 269 
Italy in Revolt .' 270 
Towards "Vrill" 270 
Europe the Prodigal 270 
Wanted, a New Peter the Hermit 270 
A Tragic Christmas Eve 271 
Crushing the African Slave Trade 271 
The New South African State. 271 
The French and the Hovas 272 
The Khedive's Cantrups 272 
Nostrums-Western and Eastern 272 
Well Caught 273 
Work and Relief .... 273 
The Death of George W. C hilds 273 
In the Educational W orld 273 
With portraits of President Peixoto, Admiral da Gama, 
Admiral Benham, Mr. Robert Stein, Alfred Bj or ling, 
Evald Kallstenius, Joseph B. Tyrrell, Richard P. 
Bland, Wheeler H. Peckham, Lieutenant Maritz, Sir 
Gerald Portal, and the Marquis of Lansdowne ; the 
sloop-of-war Kearsarge, maps and other illustrations. 
Record of Current Events . 274 
With portraits of J. Russell Reynolds, Constance Fenni- 
more Woolson, and Miss Tucker. 
Current History in Caricature 278 
With reproductions from American, Canadian and for- 
eign cartoon papers. 
Childs, the Giver 283 
By Talcott Williams. 
With portraits and other illustrations. 
A New Constitution for New York 291 
With portraits of delegates at large. 
Emergency Relief at Washington 295 
Theodore Billroth : A Character Sketch 297 
With portrait of Dr. Billroth. 
The Story of the World's Parliament of Religions 299 
By Rev. F. Herbert Stead. 
With portraits of prominent representatives at the World's 
Parliament. 
Miss Clara Barton and the Red Cross 311 
By Sophia Wells Royce Williams. 
With portrait of Miss Barton. 
Leading Articles of the Month- 
To the Rescue of the Sea Islanders 317 
Relief for the Unemployed 319 
A Solution of the Social Problem 321 
Old Age Pensions a Debt, Not a Dole 321 
High Wag es the Cause of Cheap Work 322 
A Talk With a Tramp 323 
The Income Tax in England 323 
Catholic Scheme of Graduated Income Tax 323 
" The Paralytic Bank of England." 324 
The Industrial Crisis of the South 324 
The South Carolina Liquor Law 325 
Public Architecture in this Country 326 
Cost of Constructing and Operating an Electric- 
light Plant... 327 
Electricity in Suburban Development 327 
Tammany Hall and New York City 328 
"Political Reunion from a Canadian Point of 
View" 330 
The Hawaiian Difficulty 330 
The Republics of the World 333 
An Advocate of Proportional Representation 335 
Is Representative Government a Failure ? 336 
Europe a Federation or a Wreck ? 337 
Who Killed the British Federation League ? 338 
The History of " The Chiltern Hundreds " 338 
Indian Currency 338 
Why the Sicilian Peasantry is in Revolt 3 9 
Is Europe Going Mai? 340 
The Psychology of Crime 342 
Can Consumption be Cured ? 342 
The Making of Scotch Doctors 344 
What Killed Hindu Science 344 
A Posthumous Article by Renan 345 
A Modern Jew on Jesus of Nazareth 345 
Moslems and Christians, How Far One 346 
Buddhism in Ecclesiastes .... 346 
Poetic Tournaments in Bengali 347 
Herbert Spencer's Tribute to Tyndall 247 
The New Master of Balliol 348 » 
With portrait of Prof. Edward Caird. 
Stories About Dean Stanley 350 
Tales About Tennyson 350 
Alma-Tadema at Home 351 
Mr. Ruskin and Modern Problems 352 • 
Clematis and Ivy 352 < 
The Incarnation of English Dissent 35A ' 
The Real Stonewall Jackson 353 • 
Jan Van Beers at Home ... 354 
A New Edison on the Horizon 355 
Chicago's Greatest Millionaire . 355 
Whitcomb Riley as a Sign Painter 356 
The Age of the Earth 356 
The Periodicals Reviewed 357 
The New Books 366 
Contents of Reviews and Magazines 372 
Index to Periodicals 381 
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