During the war of 1859 Griffine served as director and head physician at the Military Hospital of San Luca. After it was over, the valour he had demonstrated led to his being awarded the Legion of Honour and promoted to the rank of "Surgeon Major" in the . Also in 1859, directly after the war, he was elected to the municipal councillor. Meanwhile, in 1862 he was a co-founder of the Italian Medical Association, and in his capacity as president of the Medical Committee of Milan he served on a number of commissions concerning the laws on health and hygiene, and the reorganisation at the national level of medical training. In 1862 he was a member of the hospital commission mandated to study nosocomial gangrene and suggest solutions for it. He worked on projects to study the establishment of district asylums, and in 1864, as the councillor responsible, was given the task of drafting a new regulation on the subject.