Address in surgery : delivered at the Semi-Centennial Meeting of the American Medical Association at Philadelphia, Pa., June 3, 1896 / by W.W. Keen.

  • Keen, William W. (William Williams), 1837-1932.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address in surgery : delivered at the Semi-Centennial Meeting of the American Medical Association at Philadelphia, Pa., June 3, 1896 / by W.W. Keen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    debtors for the gift of anesthesia. The discovery of an American dentist; first used by an American sur- geon ; christened by an American physician and litterateur; the recent celebration awakened through- out the world the interest not only of the profession, but also of the entire public; and the strains of our still living poet, novelist, physiologist and, as we all best love to remember him, neurologist. Dr. S. Weir Mitchell— nihil tetigit quod non ornavit—as he sung of the “ Birth and Death of Pain,’’ have scarce died away before we begin anew our round of celebrations in the anniversary of this now almost venerable Association. A most important factor in the improvement not only in surgery but also in all departments of medi- cine, has been the immense advance made in medical teaching. Tlie educational plane of the profession has been steadily elevated. If the teachers of fifty years ago were to revisit the scenes of their early labors they would scarcely recognize the medical colleges, in which, in their day and generation, and with the meagre appliances then at their command, they did what we must still recognize as yeoman’s work in education. Apparently, at that time, the entire in- struction consisted in lectures, no text-books even being advised. In reply to a letter addressed to the deans of the Jefferson Medical College and of the MedicaP Departments of the University of Pennsyl- vania, Harvard University and Columbia University, I am told that no lists of text-books whatever appear on the catalogues of fifty years ago. In the “catalogue” of the Jefferson, for 1857—a mere catalogue of names of the faculty and students, instead of the present elab- orate “ Announcement ”—for the first time appears a list of “Books of Reference,” and the Dean of Harvard, states that there, “ the first mention whatever made of text-books appears in the announcement of the sum- mer session, beginning March 12, 1866,” four years after I graduated! At first the text-books generally recommended on surgery were Drewitt and Erichsen;