author
Frederick-Emil Neef
A surgeon and early medical writer, he published clear, practical guidance for doctors at a time when anesthesia was still developing into a modern specialty. His work reflects the hands-on, problem-solving spirit of early 20th-century medicine.
1 Audiobook
Practical Points in Anesthesia
by Frederick-Emil Neef
About the author
Born in Springfield, Illinois, on July 11, 1872, Frederick-Emil Neef trained across several fields before building a medical career. Sources indicate that he studied at the University of Notre Dame, earning science and law degrees there, and later completed a medical degree at Columbia in 1904.
He went on to practice in New York and wrote medical books including Practical Points in Anesthesia and Guiding Principles in Surgical Practice. Practical Points in Anesthesia, published in 1908, is the work most closely associated with his name today and shows his interest in making technical medical practice more usable for working physicians.
Although not widely known outside historical medical circles now, Neef's writing offers a window into a period when surgery and anesthesia were rapidly changing. His books are valued today less as modern medical guidance than as thoughtful records of how doctors explained and refined their craft in the early 1900s.