Back to Founding of AATS
WILLY MEYER
Dr. Willy Meyer was born
July 24, 1858, in Minden, Westphalia, Germany. There his preliminary education
brought him skill in Latin, Greek, and German, a little less in English and
French, and instilled in him a desire for a professional career. His mother
anticipated a musical career because of his proficiency at the piano. His own
choice was due largely to the family friendship with Dr. Abraham Jacobi. The
experience of being, at a young age, the shorthand secretary to this learned
physician during one of his lecture tours in German clinics inspired Willy
Meyer to choose a medical career. After a year at Erlangen, of which six months
was in military service, he entered Bonn and received his Doctor of Medicine
Degree in 1880. In a subordinate rank at Bonn, he worked with Wilhelm Busch,
Surgeon General of the German Army, during the Franco-Prussian War; then with
Madelung for nine months after which he went to Strasbourg with Frederich
Trendelenburg for a fruitful 3 years.
In 1884, he came to the United States and engaged in general practice
while working as an assistant in Surgery at the German dispensary. By 1886,
success prompted him to limit his practice to surgery. For the next ten years,
he taught as Professor of Clinical Surgery at the Womens Medical College. At
this time he was appointed an Attending Surgeon at the German Hospital and nine
other hospitals. In 1923, he became consultant to all of them.
His contributions labelled him a stimulating investigator. In 1884, at
the behest of Trendelenburg, he reported in Langenbeck's Archives the
advantages of the Trendelenburg position which he was the first to demonstrate
in America. In 1887, he introduced cystoscopy with the Nitze scope, which he
modified.
On November 12th of 1894, at the New York Academy of Medicine, he
presented his experience with an improved method of radical operation for
carcinoma of the breast in a small series of patients. This occurred only 10
days after Halsted had reported, in the Annals of Surgery, his experience with
a similar operation on 50 patients since 1888. Althoughthe procedures were similar, Dr. Meyer accepted very
graciously the priority of Dr. Halsted and lauded him for his effort. Willy
Meyer's continuing interest in cancer brought forth his comprehensive book on
the subject in 1931.
Following the death of his eldest daughter from acute appendicitis in
1895, Dr. Meyer initiated a series of papers which preached the merits of
appendectomy advanced by Dr. Charles McBurney. This contributed greatly to our
present concept of therapy. In 1897, he did the first uteral catheterization
with the Caspar Scope which he also modified. He also introduced the Bottini
operation for prostatic obstruction. In the same year, he publicized the
gastrostomy methods of Wetzel, Marwadel, and Kader.
Willy Meyer's greatest contribution, however, was in thoracic surgery.
In the 40 years between 1884 and 1924, the Annals of Surgery alone carried 357
references to his activities and discussions. Many were on thoracic subjects
and were delivered before the New York and American Surgical Societies. Other
journals have a similar record.
Among these, one finds the germs of the New York Society and the
American Association for Thoracic Surgery. They dealt with all types of
diseases of the lung, mediastinum, chest wall, esophagus, and others. His
intense interest in this field led him to found both Societies, which from his
inspiration, have grown and contributed so much to medical knowledge.
Dr. Willy Meyer died on February 24, 1932, while attending a meeting at
the New York Academy of Medicine. The subject was cancer, and much of the
discussion had been of a discouraging and pessimistic nature. Dr. Meyer rose to
defend, in his usual earnest manner, his hopes for the victims of cancer, and,
while doing so, succumbed to the heart lesion which he had known would take his
life at any moment.
Chalice
presented to Dr. Willy Meyer at the Tenth Anniversary Meeting of the AATS.
