In the history of medicine, Carol Davila is one of the names that keeps returning.
The record lists Carol Davila as Romanian physician (1828–1884).
Carol Davila was born at Parma in 1828. His recorded nationality is Romania. He trained at University of Paris.
Anaesthesia, antisepsis and germ theory arrived within fifty years and made modern surgery possible for the first time.
His posts were held at University of Bucharest.
The test of medical work is whether practice changed, not whether the argument was elegant.
That the work was done from Romania matters: hospitals, training and research funding are unevenly distributed, and they decide which questions can be asked.
Carol Davila died in 1884, aged 56. What survives is the change in practice, which is how a medical life is actually measured.
Achievements
- Held posts at University of Bucharest
