Theodor Billroth occupies a unique position in the history of surgery.
With the emergence of effective anaesthesia in the 19th century, the practice of surgery took its first steps towards the extraordinary range and capability of surgical treatments that we are familiar with today. The second half of the 19th century was the first age of scientific surgical innovation. Foremost amongst the innovators was Theodor Billroth, justly famed as the founding father of modern surgery. His fame today rests predominantly on his achieving the first successful gastrectomy (removal of part of the stomach) in 1881. His achievements were much, much more than that.
Much has been written about Billroth, in German and in English. There has only been one full length biography published in English – that a three volume work by an American surgeon, Karel Absolon. This is no longer in print. It is a thoroughly researched work but, unfortunately, as has been observed in published reviews, the author’s prose style makes for very difficult reading.
Billroth has long been a surgical hero of mine (I am a retired general and urological surgeon). This website is an attempt, as we approach the bicentenary of Billroth’s birth (1829), to engage a new readership with the remarkable achievements of this extraordinary man. It is a work in progress, with periodic additions being made as my researches proceed. My plan is first to produce a general account of his life and this I can do by translating the excellent German biography Theodor Billroth, Chirurg und Musiker by Nagel, Schober and Weiß. For future convenience, because I shall refer to it frequently, I am going to refer to this important account with the letters NSW.