GRÄFE, ALBRECHT VON (1828-1870), German oculist, son of Karl Ferdinand von Gräfe, was born at Berlin on the 22nd of May 1828. At an early age he manifested a preference for the study of mathematics, but this was gradually superseded by an interest in natural science, which led him ultimately to the study of medicine. After prosecuting his studies at Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Paris, London, Dublin and Edinburgh, and devoting special attention to ophthalmology he, in 1850, began practice as an oculist in Berlin, where he founded a private institution for the treatment of the eyes, which became the model of many similar ones in Germany and Switzerland. In 1853 he was appointed teacher of ophthalmology in Berlin university; in 1858 he became extraordinary professor, and in 1866 ordinary professor. Gräfe contributed largely to the progress of the science of ophthalmology, especially by the establishment in 1855 of his _Archiv für Ophthalmologie_, in which he had Ferdinand Arlt (1812-1887) and F. C. Donders (1818-1889) as collaborators. Perhaps his two most important discoveries were his method of treating glaucoma and his new operation for cataract. He was also regarded as an authority in diseases of the nerves and brain. He died at Berlin on the 20th of July 1870.

See _Ein Wort der Erinnerung an Albrecht von Gräfe_ (Halle, 1870) by his cousin, Alfred Gräfe (1830-1899), also a distinguished ophthalmologist, and the author of _Das Sehen der Schielenden_ (Wiesbaden, 1897); and E. Michaelis, _Albrecht von Gräfe. Sein Leben und Wirken_ (Berlin, 1877).

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 3 — Part 168

GRAFE, HEINRICH (1802-1868), German educationist, was born at Buttstädt in Saxe-Weimar on the 3rd of May 1802. He studied mathematics and theology at Jena, and in 1823 obtained a curacy in the town church of Weimar. He was transferred to Jena as rector of the town school in 1825; in 1840 he was also appointed extraordinary professor of the science of education (Pädagogik) in that university; and in 1842 he became head of the _Bürgerschule_ (middle class school) in Cassel. After reorganizing the schools of the town, he became director of the new _Realschule_ in 1843; and, devoting himself to the interests of educational reform in electoral Hesse, he became in 1849 a member of the school commission, and also entered the house of representatives, where he made himself somewhat formidable as an agitator. In 1852 for having been implicated in the September riots and in the movement against the unpopular minister Hassenpflug, who had dissolved the school commission, he was condemned to three years' imprisonment, a sentence afterwards reduced to one of twelve months. On his release he withdrew to Geneva, where he engaged in educational work till 1855, when he was appointed director of the school of industry at Bremen. He died in that city on the 21st of July 1868.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 3 — Part 168