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Theodor Billroth, founding father of modern abdominal surgery

Theodor Billroth Operating by Adalbert Seligmann

Christian Albert Theodor Billroth (born 26 August 1829 in Bergen auf Rügen, Germany; died 6 February 1894 in Opatija, Austria-Hungary, now Croatia), was a German-born Austrian surgeon and amateur musician. As a surgeon, he is generally regarded as the founding father of modern abdominal surgery. As a musician, he was a close friend and confidante of Johannes Brahms, a leading patron of the Viennese musical scene, and was one of the first to attempt a scientific analysis of musicality.

Billroth worked as a doctor from 1853-1860 at the Charité. He was apprenticed to Carl von Langenbuch and practiced surgery at Vienna, as chief of the Second Surgical Clinic at the Allgemeine Krankenhaus (Vienna General Hospital) and professor of surgery at the University of Vienna.

Billroth was directly responsible for a number of landmarks in surgery, including the first esophagectomy (1871), the first laryngectomy (1873), and most famously, the first successful gastrectomy (1881) for gastric cancer, after many an ill-fated attempt. Legend has it that Billroth was nearly stoned to death in the streets of Vienna when his first gastrectomy patient died after the procedure.

Billroth was also instrumental in establishing the first modern school of thought in surgery, and among his disciples were counted luminaries such as Alexander von Winiwarter and Jan Mikulicz-Radecki. William Halsted's pioneer surgical residency program was greatly influenced by Billroth's own methods of surgical education.

Billroth was an amateur pianist and violinist of talent. He met Brahms in the 1860's, when the composer was a rising star in the Viennese musical scene. They became close friends, travelling together and sharing musical insights. Brahms frequently sent Billroth original manuscripts for comment before publication, and Billroth participated in trial readings of many of Brahms's chamber works before their first performances. Brahms dedicated his first two string quartets, Opus 51, to Billroth.

Billroth and Brahms, together with the acerbic and influential Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick, formed the core of musical conservatives who opposed the innovations of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. In the conflict, known as the War of the Romantics, Billroth supported Brahms, but was always fair and measured in his comments. "Wagner was indeed a very considerable talent in many directions," he wrote in 1888^[1].

Billroth started an essay called Wer ist musikalisch? (Who is musical?), which was published posthumously by Hanslick. This was one of the earliest attempts to apply scientific methods to musicality. In the essay, Billroth identifies different types of amusicality — tone-deafness, rhythm-deafness, harmony-deafness — suggesting different cognitive skills involved in our perception of music. Billroth died before he could complete the research.

Excelling at both his vocation and his avocation, Billroth never saw science and music as in conflict. On the contrary, he considered the two to be necessary complements of each other. "It is one of the superficialities of our time to see in science and in art two opposites," he wrote in a letter. "Imagination is the mother of both."^[2]

• Christian Albert Theodor Billroth: Master of surgery
• Theodor Billroth's biographic sketch at Find A Grave