Acrel, Olaus

, a very eminent Swedish surgeon and physician, was born near Stockholm in the beginning of the eighteenth century. He studied first at Upsal, and afterwards at Stockholm, under the ablest practitioners in physic and surgery. In 1741 he travelled to Germany and France, and served as surgeon in the French army for two years. In 1745 he took up his residence in Stockholm, where for half a century he was considered as the first man in his profession. He introduced many valuable improvements in the army-hospitals, and his general talents and usefulness procured him the most flattering marks of public esteem. He was appointed director general of all the hospitals in the kingdom, had titles of nobility conferred upon him, was created a knight of Vasa, and became commander of that order. In 1764, the university of Upsal made him doctor in medicine by diploma, and he was enrolled a member of various learned societies. He died in 1807, at an advanced age. He published various works in the Swedish language, the principal of which are: 1. “A treatise on Fresh Wounds,” Stockholm, 1745. 2, “Observations on Surgery,” 1750. 3. “Dissertation on the operation for the Cataract,” 1766; and 4. “A Discourse on reforms in Surgical Operations,” 1767.²