Back to Founding of AATS
AATS First Annual Meeting comments and discussion
were published in the Medical Record of May 10, 1919. The excerpts quoted below
provide an indication of the "full and free discussion" which was made a basic
attribute of the new Association at its Founding, and which has been
conscientiously maintained at all times since.
DR. JOSEPH RANSOHOFF of Cincinnati said if we went a little further
back and investigated literature we would find a report of a case of aneurysm
of the aorta treated by the speaker by the insertion of a great many feet of
silver wire. He read that paper on "Wiring Aneurysm" before the Surgical
Section of the American Medical Association at its meeting in St. Louis. The
aneurysm was wired and the patient really seemed to improve. But, as so often
happens, the aneurysm advanced in another direction and this man a month or six
weeks later was found dead with rupture into the pleura. After presenting this
paper and the specimen Dr. Ransohoff went to Pikes Peak, and on the way met a
very interesting old gentleman, to whom he was introduced. He said he had heard
this paper and with difficulty refrained from opening the discussion with a
motion "That the essayist be hanged by the wire he had used".
DR. KENNETH MACKENZIE: A word or two more in regard to the cases
presented by Dr. Emil Beck, which possessed so much interest and value in all
their bearings. Several years ago he was operating on a case of empyema, one
which had defied all treatment up to that time, and had released the lung to
some slight extent, and was in the act of studying the dense membrane that
invested the lung when, on nicking it with his knife, he found a line of
cleavage between the lung and its adventitious covering, which he proceeded to
separate, when to his great surprise the lung suddenly flaredout of this incision
and filled the pleural space completely. He was not familiar with Delorme's
work at the time.
MAJOR DUDLEY FULTON: The experiences gained in the base hospital at
Camp Lewis, together with that found in the literature and learned in this very
interesting session this afternoon, prompted the speaker to venture the opinion
that in the treatment of streptococcus empyema a safe procedure would be the
use of continuous suction for a week or ten days during the active pneumonia
period, to be followed by the use of Carrel-Dakin solution, according to the
technique described by Major Murphy.
DR. B. A. HOBBS of Mitchell, S.D., said he could not claim the honor of
being a member of this august body and neither was he from New York, Chicago or
Portland, but from a little town of about 8,000 population out in South Dakota.
However, he wanted to thank Dr. Beck for the instruction he had given in his
paper read at this meeting. The speaker had operated on forty-nine cases of
empyema out in the little town of Mitchell, S.D., and up to this date 95 per
cent of the cases had recovered. Necessity is said to be the mother of
invention, and he was forced, after operating by resecting a piece of rib and
inserting a tube, to attach something to that tube to receive the drainage and
keep the pressure negative in the pleural cavity, so he simply pulled off his
rubber glove, cut the tip of one of the fingers off and placed this glove
finger over the tube and tied it on with catgut, the other end being tightly
clamped with artery forceps. This forceps was released as the glove filled with
pus and thus the cavity was drained very nicely.
DR. NATHAN W. GREEN: in closing, said ... I think Dr. Meyer had
crystallized our duty in the following sentence: "All we use in surgery must be
so perfected that it cannot do harm". He thought that statement was worthy of
passing along and being kept alive.
A VOTE OF THANKS TO DR. MELTZER - Dr. Willy Meyer of New York said he
was only too happy to make this motion. All were delighted, when founding this
association, that Dr. Meltzer consented to become its first president. If the
speaker had been a member of the nominating committee, he said, he would have
pleaded not to permit any officer of the association to leave his post during
this terrible war. But the president did not agree with him, and did not put
him on the nominating committee. He felt sure he was voicing the sentiments of
every one present when he said that the association was proud and gratified to
have it spread on its minutes, that Dr. Samuel J. Meltzer, the renowned
physiologist and internist, the man who had done so much for the evolution of
thoracic surgery, had been its first president. Dr. Meyerthen moved a rising
vote of thanks, which was seconded and unanimously carried.
The President then said: "I believe that I am justified in stating that
the first meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery has been a
great success; we have had a splendid meeting. The success of the association
will grow with the growth of the understanding of its objects. I am confident
that a time will come when thoracic surgery will be equal in importance to
surgery of the abdomen. But, gentlemen, in order to attain this desirable aim
you all must put your shoulder to the wheel. I thank you and wish you all
success - either in the recuperation during your summer vacation or in the
intensive war work in which you may be engaged".
