ACHIEVEMENTS OF 5URQERY IN AMERICA. 



BY BAYARD HOLMES. 



[Bayard Holmes, surgeon; bom N. Hero, Vt., July 29, 1852; graduated from Paw 

 Paw institute, B. 8., 1874; Chicago Homeopathic college, 1885; Northwestern uni- 

 versity medical school, 1888; began practice in 1886; was for years member of the 

 surgical staff of the Cook county hospital; secretary University of Illinois, 1891-5; 

 now senior professor of surgery medical department; organized the Chicago Medi- 

 cal Library association, and other medical societies; editor North American Prac- 

 titioner, 1889-92. Author, Surgical Emergencies, etc.] 



Of the learned professions in America, none has achieved 

 greater or more universal recognition than the profession of 

 medicine, of which surgery forms an inseparable but ever in- 

 creasing part. The conditions of American life have been 

 particularly favorable to the growth of a capable, commanding, 

 self reliant and venturesome body of surgeons. Every boy 

 in the colonies and the early life of the states was brought up 

 to self reliant and thoughtful handicraft, and by his surround- 

 ings and the very necessities of the case was trained to be re- 

 sourceful, inventive and alert in overcoming unprecedented 

 surroundings and meeting unexpected emergencies. The 

 American boy was a good carpenter, especially wdth the prim- 

 itive tools, the jackknife, the ax and the hammer. He was a 

 fair blacksmith, a capable harness maker and tailor, a good 

 moccasin and shoe maker and a competent mason. Such char- 

 acteristic resourcefulness was so universal an inheritance that 

 almost every young American carried this early equipment into 

 any technical occupation in which he found himself. 



The mastery of nature by man's ingenuity in every other 

 department of the appHed sciences is abundantly allowed to 

 America by the silent witnesses of the patent office. The ac- 

 tivity of invention and achievement in every other applied 

 art could not fail to stimulate a similar activity in the applica- 

 tion of the science of surgery. The young American was sur- 

 rounded with associates in chemistry, physics, engineering 

 and manufacture who were meeting new problems and master- 

 ing them with the same unprecedented resourcefulness and 

 enthusiasm which he felt within himself. 



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