Project Gutenberg's Pioneer Surgery in Kentucky, by David W. Yandell

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Title: Pioneer Surgery in Kentucky
A Sketch

Author: David W. Yandell

Release Date: March 13, 2009 [EBook #28322]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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PIONEER SURGERY IN KENTUCKY:

A SKETCH.

BY DAVID W. YANDELL, M. D.,

PROFESSOR OF CLINICAL SURGERY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE, KY;
PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN SURGICAL ASSOCIATION.

LOUISVILLE:

PRINTED BY JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY.

1890

THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS:

DELIVERED AT THE
REGULAR ANNUAL MEETING OF THE

AMERICAN SURGICAL ASSOCIATION,

WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 13, 1890.

PIONEER SURGERY IN KENTUCKY.

A SKETCH.

FELLOWS OF THE ASSOCIATION: In the endeavor to chronicle the lives and
achievements of Kentucky Pioneers in Surgery, I shall not attempt the
resurrection of village Hampdens or mute inglorious Miltons. The men
with whom I deal were men of deeds, not men of fruitless promise.

It may with truth be said that from Hippocrates to Gross few in our
profession who have done enduring work have lacked biographers to pay
liberal tribute to their worth. In justice to the unremembered few, I
turn back the records of medicine for a century, and put my finger upon
two names that in the bustling march of science have been overlooked,
while I try to set in fuller light two other names of workers in that
day, which have and will hold an exalted place in history. The worthies
to whom these names belong were pioneers in civilization as well as in
surgery. I shall introduce them in the order of their work.

1806. The earliest original surgical work of any magnitude done in
Kentucky, by one of her own sons, was an amputation at the hip-joint.
It proved to be the first operation of the kind in the United States.
The undertaking was made necessary because of extensive fracture of t