Reorganization of the Hospital Work in Vienna toward the End of the Eighteenth Century.—In the preceding sections mention has been made of the important changes effected by the Emperor Joseph II. in the scheme of teaching adopted by the Medical Department of the University. It now remains for me to give some account of his reorganization of the Vienna hospitals and of his founding that famous general hospital known as Das Allgemeine Krankenhaus. That there was need of reorganization in at least some of the hospitals is shown by the following anecdote which is related of Professor Boer, who held the Chair of Obstetrics. When the authorities who had special charge of the Lying-in Ward complained to him that he prescribed too liberal a diet for this class of patients, he replied somewhat impatiently that he could not feed, “with water, Epsom salts and ‘Arcanum Duplicatum’ To furnish a complete and satisfactory description of Das Allgemeine Krankenhaus would require more space than can properly be devoted here to the consideration of this single topic. Those who take a special interest in the subject will find full details in Puschmann’s monograph (See [Bibliography]); for the majority of readers the following brief account will probably suffice. The Allgemeine Krankenhaus consists of a very large group of three-story buildings in which there are numerous individual spaces large enough to serve as wards, as small lecture rooms, or as reception rooms for ambulant patients (eye, ear, throat, skin and minor surgical cases). The ceilings are usually high and the openings for windows are of such dimensions as to furnish excellent ventilation and liberal daylight illumination. Ample facilities are provided for bathing, for cooking the needed food, and for preparing and dispensing remedies; and the individual buildings are grouped in such a manner as to afford numerous small park-like spaces in which the patients may obtain outdoor exercise or may enjoy the fresh air and some social intercourse with their fellows. Although in 1784 the buildings were almost ready for occupancy and the park-like surroundings completed, it was only at a much later date that the institution was really prepared for the reception of patients. Somewhere about the year 1830 it had been so thoroughly organized that physicians and students came from different parts of the world, and especially from Great Britain and from America, to enjoy fully those extraordinary facilities for the study of every possible form of disease which were to be obtained only in the city of Vienna. Whereas in London, New York, Philadelphia and Boston, it was necessary at that time for all but a few of the students to waste many precious hours and much physical strength in traveling from one hospital to another in order to acquire by direct observation some familiarity with disease, here in Vienna was provided, in a single group of buildings, ample provision for all the clinical teaching that the most eager and serious student of medicine could possibly desire. New Methods of Diagnosis, and First Appearance of Instructors in Special Departments of Medicine at Vienna.—It was during van Swieten’s lifetime that Auenbrugger’s new invention “for detecting, by means of percussion, the obscure diseases of the chest,” was published for the first time (1761) in Vienna. The value of this discovery, which was termed by him “Novum Inventum,” was not appreciated by physicians at that time. Even van Swieten and de Haen rather looked down on the method; and its importance was not fully recognized until Corvisart, the celebrated Paris physician, published a French translation of Auenbrugger’s book in 1808. This work, in which Corvisart gave his own experience and added many notes and comments, served to popularize Auenbrugger’s method as a valuable aid to diagnosis in affections of the chest. In his preface Corvisart announced that he was well aware of the small glory that came to translators and to those who simply comment on the work of others, but notwithstanding this fact he preferred that the major part of the glory should go to Auenbrugger who had rendered such a great service to the Profession by his invention. Auenbrugger, who died in 1809 at the age of 87, lived long enough to enjoy the pleasure of this triumph. His private practice grew to be very large, and he performed, more often than any other physician of his time, the operation of thoracentesis. He was universally loved and respected in Vienna. One of the first specialties to take root in Vienna toward the end of the eighteenth century was that of ophthalmology, and the physician who first succeeded in bringing it to a high stage of development was George Joseph Beer, who was born at Vienna in 1763. During his student days and for a short time subsequently he acted as a draughtsman for Joseph Barth, the professor of anatomy and physiology in the Vienna University, and in this way he obtained unusual opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of both the normal and the pathological anatomy of the eye. Already in 1793 he applied for, and was granted, permission to treat, in the Allgemeine Krankenhaus, such poor people as were suffering from cataract, and to perform the requisite operations. Each year, during the months of May and June, a suitable room was gotten ready for Beer in the hospital, and here, during this most favorable season of the year, he performed many cataract operations. In 1812 he received the double appointment of Director of the Eye Clinic and Professor Extraordinary of Ophthalmology; and from this time forward he rapidly gathered about him a great crowd of pupils, among whom were men who—like C. F. von Graefe, Philip von Walther, T. W. G. Benedict, F. Jaeger, Rosas, Quadri, J. N. Fischer, Mackenzie, Reisinger, Chelius and others—were soon to be known in every part of Austria, Germany, Italy and England as the leading eye surgeons of their respective countries. Beer therefore exerted a most decided influence on the development of ophthalmology. Beer’s early writings, the first of which date from the year 1791, also exerted a great influence. Such, for example, were his “Practical Observations on the Gray Form of Cataract” and on the “Different Eye Diseases which Owe their Origin to Some General Disease”; and also his “Treatise on Diseases of the Eyes.” The last-named passed through several enlarged and improved editions between 1813 and 1817. In 1799 he issued a Summary of all the treatises on ophthalmological topics which had been published up to the end of 1797; and soon afterward he published an account of his method of extracting a gray cataract together with its capsule. Still other memoirs of decided value were published by him in the following years; and among them one especially deserves to be mentioned, viz., that on the affliction known as “Pannus,” of which condition he was the first to give a correct explanation. In 1819 Beer was stricken with an illness of a serious nature, and two years later he died. He was succeeded by Anton Rosas, whose death occurred in 1855.