John Wolfe graduated MD from Glasgow University in 1856. He founded the Glasgow Ophthalmic Institution in 1868 and he ran this for a quarter of a century. In 1875 he published the technique of full-thickness skin grafting in the British Medical Journal. In the last decades of the 19th century he gained wide experience in soft-tissue transplants. Generally unknown was Wolfe's earlier appointment as military surgeon to Garibaldi's army. An original and unpublished letter related to his Italian experience gives evidence of the colourful personality of this Hungarian-born Scottish-trained surgeon.
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