From a Bohemian-born doctor to a globe-trotting medical pioneer, this memoir traces a life of study, travel and service.
A physician-narrator recounts his youth in Prague, the rigors of university life, and a lifelong quest to practice medicine in the United States, with stops in Europe’s great cities and hospitals that shaped his work.
This edition gathers vivid scenes from the author's early training, his adventures in Naples and Rome, and his onward journey to San Francisco and beyond. It presents a firsthand view of 19th-century medicine, travel, and the personal discoveries that accompany a physician’s rise to practice, research, and teaching.
- A youth shaped by strict schooling, dramatic teachers, and a love of theater, music, and languages
- Escapes, emigration, and the pursuit of medical training across Vienna, Prague, Munich, and beyond
- Encounters with war, public hospitals, and field surgery that broadened a doctor’s horizon
- Travels through Naples, Vesuvius, San Francisco, shipyards, Chinatown, and American medical societies
Ideal for readers who enjoy historical memoirs rooted in medical training, personal resilience, and the experience of crossing continents in the 1800s.