SECTION H SURGERY 



(Hall 13, September 23, 10 a. m.) 



CHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR CARL BECK, Post-Graduate Medical School, New York. 

 SPEAKER: DR. FREDERIC S. DENNIS, F.R.C.S., Cornell Medical College, New 



York City. 

 SECRETARY: DR. J. F. BINNIE, Kansas City, Mo. 



THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF SURGERY 

 DURING THE PAST CENTURY 



BY FREDERIC S. DENNIS 



[Frederic S. Dennis, M.D., F.R.C.S. England, Professor of Clinical Surgery, Cor- 

 nell University Medical College, b. Newark, New Jersey. A.B. Yale Univer- 

 sity, 1872; M.D. Bellevue Hospital Medical College, 1874; M.R.C.S. Royal 

 College of Surgeons, 1877; F.R.C.S. ibid. 1899; Post-graduate, Universities of 

 Heidelberg, Berlin, and Vienna, 1899. President of American Surgical Associa- 

 tion, 1894; Attending Surgeon, Bellevue and Saint Vincent Hospitals; Con- 

 sulting Surgeon, Montefiore Home and Saint Joseph Hospitals. Member of the 

 Clinical Society of London; German Congress of Surgeons; American Medical 

 Association; New York Surgical Society, and many others. Author of System 

 of Surgery; contributor to American text-book of surgery.] 



THE first word of the speaker on this occasion must be a personal 

 one of respectful acknowledgment. To be invited by the adminis- 

 trative board to deliver an address upon any theme before this 

 august Congress, composed as it is of many of the world's most 

 distinguished men of science, is a distinction which any one might 

 justly prize. But to be chosen as the orator upon a topic so import- 

 ant, far-reaching, and comprehensive as the history and develop- 

 ment of surgery during the past century is an honor so exalted 

 that while it pleasantly gratifies, it also most seriously appalls. 



Permit me at the outset to record my profound and grateful ap- 

 preciation of the high honor thus conferred, and at the same time 

 to express the hesitation which I feel in attempting to handle so 

 great a theme within the necessary limitations of the hour. It is 

 obvious that the task is as fascinating as it is difficult. It is under- 

 taken at the earnest solicitation of friends who have much stronger 

 confidence than the speaker in his ability to narrate in a fitting 

 way the triumphs of our great science. 



To weigh the surgical events of a hundred years ago, and the 

 motives which gave rise to them, requires us to summon to our 

 thought, as far as possible all the circumstances of that period. 

 Only when this retrospect is made, and the meager results then 



