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Our surgical heritage
SPECIALDEPARTMENTS
Our Surgical Heritage D. P. HALL, M.D., Surgical Department, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky
UNITED
STATES
HENRY
JACOB
OF AMERICA
BIGELOW
JACOB BIGELOW, of Y Iigament fame, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, March I I, 1818, the son of Jacob BigeIow who was the first professor of materia medica at Harvard MedicaI SchooI. Henry Jacob graduated from Harvard in 1837. He studied medicine with his father and attended the Iectures of OIiver WendeII HoImes, who was then at Dartmouth and was appointed as a house student at the Massachusetts Genera1 HospitaI. Because of a puImonary condition he visited Cuba and
H
ENRY
American Journal of Surpy,
Volume IOI, June 1961
824
Our SurgicaI
Heritage
Iater Paris where he continued his studies in medicine. He received an degree from Harvard Medical School in 1841, after which he went to Paris and London for graduate work. On his return to Boston he acquired a large practice and made many friends as we11 as a number of enemies by opening a charitabIe surgica1 institution. He had an inventive nature and was a cohector of surgica1 instruments which numbered in the thousands, many from abroad. He was one of the earIy men in the United States to study surgica1 pathoIogy and, in fact, became one of the earIiest microscopists in the United States, In 1844, he pubIished a Treatise on Orthopedic Surgery which won for him the Boylston Prize for that year. In 1845, he was made an instructor in surgery at the Tremont Street Medical School. In 1846, he was appointed a visiting surgeon to the Massachusetts Genera1 HospitaI and it was here he witnessed the first use of ether for surgica1 anesthesia in the eastern states. BigeIow became Professor of Surgery at Harvard MedicaI SchooI in 1849, and reigned unti1 1882, when he was made Professor Emeritus. Henry Jacob BigeIow was both a brilliant and accompIished surgeon. He demonstrated the Y Iigament of the hip joint, for which he has been generahy we11 known. He perfected an instrument, “B ige 1ow’s Iithotrite and evacuator,” that would Iessen the danger of Iithotrity and shorten the duration of treatment. He pubhshed the resuIts in 1878, and at this period pubhshed an essay, Lithotrity by a Single Operation. It is difhcuIt to understand why BigeIow so opposed coeducation in medica schooIs and even more, vivisection. Bigelow wiI1 probabIy be remembered for his publication of the Manual of Orthopedic Surgery and for his evacuator for use in uroIogy, but above a11for his important deveIopment of the method of using the Y-shaped Iigament of the hip joint in the reduction of disIocations at the hip. BigeIow was a cuItured, inventive and briIIiant surgeon. He died in Newton, Massachusetts, fohowing an accident on October 30, 1890. “Of his Iike there are few.”
M.D.
Our Surgical Heritage D. P. HALL, M.D., Surgical Department, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky
UNITED
STATES
HENRY
JACOB
OF AMERICA
BIGELOW
JACOB BIGELOW, of Y Iigament fame, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, March I I, 1818, the son of Jacob BigeIow who was the first professor of materia medica at Harvard MedicaI SchooI. Henry Jacob graduated from Harvard in 1837. He studied medicine with his father and attended the Iectures of OIiver WendeII HoImes, who was then at Dartmouth and was appointed as a house student at the Massachusetts Genera1 HospitaI. Because of a puImonary condition he visited Cuba and
H
ENRY
American Journal of Surpy,
Volume IOI, June 1961
824
Our SurgicaI
Heritage
Iater Paris where he continued his studies in medicine. He received an degree from Harvard Medical School in 1841, after which he went to Paris and London for graduate work. On his return to Boston he acquired a large practice and made many friends as we11 as a number of enemies by opening a charitabIe surgica1 institution. He had an inventive nature and was a cohector of surgica1 instruments which numbered in the thousands, many from abroad. He was one of the earIy men in the United States to study surgica1 pathoIogy and, in fact, became one of the earIiest microscopists in the United States, In 1844, he pubIished a Treatise on Orthopedic Surgery which won for him the Boylston Prize for that year. In 1845, he was made an instructor in surgery at the Tremont Street Medical School. In 1846, he was appointed a visiting surgeon to the Massachusetts Genera1 HospitaI and it was here he witnessed the first use of ether for surgica1 anesthesia in the eastern states. BigeIow became Professor of Surgery at Harvard MedicaI SchooI in 1849, and reigned unti1 1882, when he was made Professor Emeritus. Henry Jacob BigeIow was both a brilliant and accompIished surgeon. He demonstrated the Y Iigament of the hip joint, for which he has been generahy we11 known. He perfected an instrument, “B ige 1ow’s Iithotrite and evacuator,” that would Iessen the danger of Iithotrity and shorten the duration of treatment. He pubhshed the resuIts in 1878, and at this period pubhshed an essay, Lithotrity by a Single Operation. It is difhcuIt to understand why BigeIow so opposed coeducation in medica schooIs and even more, vivisection. Bigelow wiI1 probabIy be remembered for his publication of the Manual of Orthopedic Surgery and for his evacuator for use in uroIogy, but above a11for his important deveIopment of the method of using the Y-shaped Iigament of the hip joint in the reduction of disIocations at the hip. BigeIow was a cuItured, inventive and briIIiant surgeon. He died in Newton, Massachusetts, fohowing an accident on October 30, 1890. “Of his Iike there are few.”
M.D.