ABSTRACT
MAX BURCHARDT was born January 15, 1831, in Naugard, in the old state of Pomerania. On completing his preliminary education, he began his medical studies at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Institute in Berlin, a military medical school. He took his degree in 1855, submitting a thesis on abdominal ascites. During the next 20 years he served as a military physician at many different posts, and retained an active interest in army medicine for the rest of his life. In 1862 he journeyed to England and became one of Lister’s first converts to the doctrine of antiseptic surgery. On his return to Germany, he became one of the leading proponents of the technique.
