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Peter Frank died at his home in Vienna on April 24, 1821.

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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.