Break a Cord," "Prestidigitation," "Circle Divider," "Sulphurous Acid,"
"Production of Gas," "Aquatic Velocipede," "Several Toys," "Scientific
Amusements," are from our excellent contemporary _La Nature_.

* * * * *




THEODOR BILLROTH, PROFESSOR OF SURGERY AT VIENNA.


The well known surgeon, Theodor Billroth, was born on the island of Rügen
in 1829. He showed great talent and liking for music, and it was the wish
of his father, who was a minister, that he should cultivate this taste
and become an artist; but the great masters of medicine, Johannes
Mueller, Meckel v. Hemsbach, R. Wagner, Traube, and Schönlein, who were
Billroth's instructors at Greifswald, Göttingen, and Berlin, discovered
his great talent for surgery and medicine, and induced him to adopt this
profession. It was particularly the late Prof. Baum who influenced
Billroth to make surgery a special study, and he was Billroth's first
special instructor.

In 1852 Billroth received his degree as doctor at the University of
Berlin. After traveling for one year, and spending part of his time in
Vienna and Paris, he was appointed assistant in the clinique of B. von
Langenbeck, Berlin. At this time he published his works on pathological
histology ("Microscopic Studies on the Structure of Diseased Human
Tissues") which made him so well known that he was appointed a professor
of pathology at Greifswald in 1858. Mr. Billroth did not accept that