Abraham Bäck

Abraham Bäck was a Swedish physician, born on 9 December 1713 and died on 21 May 1795, who is regarded as an important reformer of Swedish medical training and of how medical practice was organised in his country. He began studying for the priesthood at Uppsala in 1730 but turned to medicine after seeing an anatomical demonstration, and took his doctorate in 1740 with a thesis on tuberculosis. After study abroad from 1741 to 1745 he practised in Stockholm, lectured on anatomy from 1747, became professor of anatomy in 1749 and was made queen's physician in 1773. With Olof Acrel he argued for a modern hospital, and Serafimerlasarettet, Sweden's first, opened in 1752. He became archiater and president of the Collegium medicum, was a close friend of Carl Linnaeus and joined the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1742.