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KAREL B. ABSOLON
INTERPRETS
THE BELLE EPOQUE OF SURGERY
The Life and Times
of Theodor Billroth
US $49.50
The Life of Billroth and his times,
which Karel B. Absolon calls the "Belle
Epoque of Surgery," is a timely book pub-
lished at the 100th anniversary of his
death. Billroth's persona is well adapted to
our times, when "Lux et Veritas," Bill-
roth's "Klarheit und Warheit," "Clarity
and Truth," is often neglected. Absolon, a
scientist, practicing and academic surgeon,
and historian of surgery is a writer of
great clarity and eloquence, calling for
morality and decency through the histori-
cal figure of Theodor Billroth. His assess-
ment features the many-sided character
and consuming absorptions of this ver-
satile surgeon. Billroth's biographer has
chosen to develop a chronological narra-
tive, interweaving family life, schools,
professional and cultural pursuits, friends,
and letters of young Billroth from child-
hood to the very end of his life -- a se-
quential chronicle which portrays Bill-
roth's progression and achievements at
every stage during a busy life. The subject
of the biography very clearly was a man
of many moods, impatient, but resolute
and persevering, fearless and outspoken in
defense of his beliefs and convictions. The
author has stressed particularly Billroth's
friendship and association with Johannes
Brahms the famed musician and composer
-- all of which our biographer has deftly
intertwined with the story, reflecting a
firsthand acquaintance with Billroth's vo-
luminous correspondence. Billroth was
universally acknowledged as a factual and
honest reporter, not explaining his failures
as surgeons earlier had been wont to do.
Dr. Karel Absolon hints that Billroth may
have become morphine-dependent in his
final years, during periods of congestive
heart failure due to cardiomyopathy. The
reader puts aside this engaging pursuit by
Dr. Absolon of a famous surgeon with the
knowledge that he has been privileged to
pursue a life study of one of the truly in-
novative surgeons of the nineteenth cen-
tury. This informative and enlightened ac-
count of an unusually talented surgeon
with keen and diverse cultural interests
should prove a very durable effort, and if
as imperishable as its subject the name
Absolon will forever be linked with that of
Billroth.
Karel B. Absolon, FACS M.S. M.D.
Ph.D. Dr.med. (honoris causa) was
born in Czechoslovakia in 1926. He
graduated from the Yale School of Medi-
cine with an M.D. degree in 1952. He
received the other degrees from the Uni-
versity of Minnesota, where he received
his first academic appointment. Since
then he was Professor of Surgery at
Southwestern Medical School in Dallas,
Texas and the George Washington Medi-
cal School in Washington, D.C. He is
emeritus Academic Chairman and Profes-
sor of Surgery at the Illinois University
Medical School in Champaign-Urbana.
His main surgical accomplishments were
pioneering coronary artery surgery by en-
darterectomy and/or bypass(1956), liver
transplantation (1963), and other unique
operations, for which he received the
Gold Medal of Masaryk University,
Czech Republic, for life-long contribu-
tions to surgery. He also received the
Mendel, Palacky(Moravia) and Com-
menius scientific medals (Slovakia). He
was visiting professor of surgery at most
major U.S. medical schools, as well as
European medical schools and schools in
Asia. He published more that 1500 ori-
ginal scientific papers or reviews, and 17
books. The present book is based on his
IV volume "The Surgeon' s Surgeon --
Theodor Billroth 1829-1894," as were the
German translation "Grofmeister der
Chirurgie," and an Italian translation. At
the present time he is an author and lec-
turer, and member of a number of profes-
sional boards and foundations in the U.S.
and abroad.
Kabel Publishers, Rockville, Md.
It is surprising that a surgeon of such fame as Theodor Billroth, who with his personality
dominated the last third of the nineteenth century, has not until now been evaluated in a
monographic form. There are multiple reasons; the sources are voluminous, scattered, and
complex.
It is for this reason that Karel B. Absolon's work deserves attention. Despite his profes-
sional obligations as both practitioner and teacher of surgery, he has devoted some ten years
of painstaking labor to assemble and translate the sources and write this book.
Every page of the book emanates enthusiasm for the subject of his biography. With great
intuition and an astonishing knowledge of Billroth's life milieu, the author evaluates the man
and his time. The work elaborates on Billroth's surgical activity, his humanity, his artistic
inclinations, his manifold involvement within the society and the historical events that made
us what we are.
Dr. Absolon's work narrates a most attractive and fascinating period of European cultural
history, the so-called "belle �poque" of the nineteenth century. Let us hope that his book will
carry on the torch of enlightenment with which Theodor Billroth, Surgeon-Humanist-Artist,
i]luminated the nineteenth and on into the present century.
Prof. Dr. Med. et Phil. Erna Lesky,
Direktor des Institutes fiir Medizin
der Universitat Wien,
Wiahringer Strasse 25
Wien, 1978
As the grandson of Theodor Billroth, probably the only one alive who knew him, I like to
tell you how well you interpreted him.
I was just a little boy when my grandfather died, my views and knowledge of him came
mainly from my mother Martha and my beloved father Otto Gottlieb, who published the
Billroth-Brahms correspondence. Such was his esteem for his father-in-law that he adopted
his name.
Thus I became Hans Billroth-Gottlieb.
Carbondale, Colorado, 1984
KABEL PUBLISHERS
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