In 1785 Frank accepted an invitation to take charge of the clinical instruction at the University of Pavia, in the place of Tissot who had resigned. Through Frank’s advice and persistent efforts the medical department of the Pavia University was enriched by the addition of a chair of physiology and comparative anatomy, an anatomical theatre capable of seating 400 auditors, and a collection of pathologico-anatomical preparations to which all the hospitals of that part of Lombardy were obliged to contribute suitable specimens. The establishment of a surgical clinic was another of the improvements in the teaching facilities of the University that should be credited to Peter Frank. The length of the medical course was at his suggestion extended to five years. Among his associates in the Faculty at this period were the following distinguished men: Scarpa, in the chair of surgery, Scopoli, in that of pharmacology, and Volta in physics.
In November, 1795, Frank returned to Vienna and was almost immediately appointed Director of the Allgemeine Krankenhaus and Professor of the Medical Clinic with a salary of 5,000 florins and the privilege of occupying rent-free a house that was located in the immediate neighborhood of the hospital. At the same time the title of Aulic Councillor (Hofrath) was conferred upon him. One of the first improvements which he effected in the clinic was to have the small wards for male and female patients materially enlarged so that when twenty-five or thirty patients were present, as was often the case, the air might not become noticeably contaminated and thus rendered unfit for all who were present to breathe.
In his teaching Frank never forgot, on all possible occasions, to impress upon the students the importance of thinking independently on the subjects that were brought before them, as in this way they would learn to distinguish the false from the true. Whenever he discovered that he had made a mistake in one of his statements he did not hesitate to confess the fact. His son, Joseph, is responsible for the statement that his father never seemed to him happier than when he had an opportunity of making to his auditors some such speech as the following: “Gentlemen! Strike out this or that line in one of the volumes of my work! When I wrote it I believed that it was correct; but now I am convinced that the very opposite is the truth!” When Brunonianism was first transplanted from Great Britain to the Continent and was received enthusiastically by many physicians, Frank was not disposed immediately to accept its teachings, and yet at the same time he did not believe that it was quite fair to ignore the thing altogether. Not a few men inferred from this hesitating attitude on his part that he rather favored Brown’s system. As a matter of fact he was an eclectic in his views and was always ready to appropriate whatever seemed to him good in any system or school of doctrines. As Director of the Allgemeine Krankenhaus he adopted the plan of having the leading physicians and surgeons of the Clinic first report publicly once a week what were the important diseases that had come under observation during that period; and then he would call upon the auditors to discuss the subject freely.
Peter Frank died at his home in Vienna on April 24, 1821.
CHAPTER VI
TWO EMINENT GERMAN SURGEONS OF THE PRE-ANTISEPTIC PERIOD
Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach, born in 1794 at Koenigsberg, an important city of Northern Prussia, received his early medical education in France; first under Boyer, Dupuytren, Larrey and Magendie, at Paris, and then later at Montpellier, under Delpech. After his return to Germany in 1823 he devoted his efforts largely to surgery, and soon distinguished himself so greatly in this department of medicine that in 1840, after the death of Karl von Graefe, he was chosen his successor in the office of Director of the University Surgical Clinic at Berlin. His death occurred in 1847.
Dieffenbach was universally considered a very clever operator, particularly in the field of plastic surgery. He was distinguished by a high degree of manual skill, remarkable presence of mind under the most trying circumstances, and boldness combined with prudence. His triumphs in the reconstruction of damaged parts of the body, effected largely by the transplantation of flaps of normal skin, were quite remarkable; he seemed to know just what steps were required for restoring a mutilated soft palate, ear, nose, eyelid, etc. But his interest was not confined to plastic surgery; he also performed successful operations in tenotomy, myotomy, transfusion of blood, and the injection of drug infusions into the veins.