[Our surgical heritage. Thoracoplasty--discussion of a painting]. / Das chirurgische Erbe. Thorakoplastik--eine Bildbesprechung.

The author reports on a hitherto unknown painting of the South-German artist Hermann Otto Hoyer, representing 'Geheimrat' Ferdinand Sauerbruch surrounded by his coworkers Rudolf Nissen, Alfred Brunner, Emil-Karl Frey, Bernhard Jehn and Willi Felix in Munich 1922.

[Our surgical heritage. The surgical clinic of the Berlin Charité and its contribution to progress in surgical medicine in the past and present]. / Das chirurgische Erbe. Die Chirurgische Klinik der Berliner Charité und ihr Beitrag für den Fortschritt der operativen Medizin in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart.

An account is given of the making of surgery on the premises of Charité against the background of the 260-year history of this centre of clinical teaching. In that course of time, surgery has changed from craft to science. -Surgery was primarily applied to cope with surface wound and diseases in the 18th century, while pathological processes in the abdominal cavity and cranium became operable in the 19th century, owing to introduction of anaesthesia and antisepsis. In the 20th century, modern medicine and equipment enabled surgical interventions with all regions of the human body. -Osseous and articular diseases as well as cerebral and pulmonary diseases are priorities in surgical practice at Charité. Reference should be also made to transplantation surgery, with results of international weight having been scored from Dieffenbach to our days.

[Our surgical heritage. Surgery in ancient Egypt]. / Chirurgie im alten Agypten.

In its 3,000 years History the surgery of the Old Egypt came on to an important development. Some of the antique instruments used in traumatology, the general surgery and in cosmetic-plastic operations, are in a scarcely modified manner employed for the same purposes in modern surgical interventions nowadays. The surgical diagnostics and therapy of that time is demonstrated by the surgical instruments stock being in the possession of the "Agyptisches Museum" of the "Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin". The surgery of Egypt transferred its leading part to the prosperous medical schools of Greece at the late period of the Old Egyptian empire (1085-332 B.C.). Its surgical diagnostics and therapy depending on an empirical rationalism, the applied instruments but also its ethical attitude towards the patients have been one of the dedisive bases influencing the development of the surgery in the antiquity.