Christen Heiberg (physician)

Christen Heiberg (1799-1872) was a Norwegian surgeon and professor, born in Bergen and counted among the first surgeons born in Norway. He was among the first students of medicine at the Royal Frederick University in Christiania, graduated in 1822, and began work at the new Rikshospitalet in 1826. His doctoral thesis dealt with eye surgery, and from 1836 he was professor of surgery and eye diseases at the University of Christiania as well as senior consultant physician at the hospital. He helped found the Christiania Medical Association in 1833 and, in 1849, became the first in the country to use chloroform on patients, which is why he is most known for bringing modern anesthesia to Norway. He also competed with Gerhard Armauer Hansen to find the cause of leprosy and died the year before Hansen found the bacillus.