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The surgical conscience
Copyright,
A
VOL.
PRACTICAL
1952 by The American Journal
JOURNAL
of Surgery, Inc.
BUILT
LXXX111
ON
MERIT
NUMBER
SIX
THE SURGICAL CONSCIENCE
I
F any practicing surgeon in this country does not know in some detaiI the medical Iife of Dr. RudoIph Matas of New Orleans, that surgeon is a poorIy informed man indeed. In our opinion, and this is pureIy personal, Dr. Matas is the outstanding surgeon of this country of the past six decades. His reputation and fame are worId wide. He is a true friend. We have been honored for the past quarter of a century in having had him on our Editorial Board. The Bureau of New Orleans News sent us a news item concerning Dr. Matas, and quoted from a repIy he made in accepting his latest honor. You will note Dr. Matas defines what in his judgment makes for a real surgeon. We helieve every mentaIIy honest physician wiI1 echo Dr. Matas’ words. Therefore, w-e quote aImost in fuI1 the announcement which we received: “In New OrIeans a feIIowship in the American College of Surgeons was bestowed upon Dr. Rudolph Matas, professor emeritus of surgery at TuIane University. The feIIowship was conferred by Dr. AIton Ochsner, president of the American CoIIege of Surgeons and WiIham Henderson, Professor and Director, Department of Surgery, TuIane University. “Dr. Matas, who served as president of the College of Surgeons in 1925 and who is one of the founders, is the first man ever intimateI:, associated with the College of Surgeons to receive the award. “In acknowledging the award Dr. nlatas said: ‘It is very gratifying to me to.have this
award conferred upon me and it is especiaIIy gratifying to have Dr. Ochsner, my successor as Professor of Surgery at Tulane and now President of the CoIIege of Surgeons, to confer it.’ “He said, too, that it has always been the traditiarrof the American CoIIege of Surgeons ‘to build up men fitted to carry on the flaming torch of progress handed to them by their predecessors . . . to this end, it has and is endeavoring to stimuIate the cultivation of a surgical conscience. By this we mean not merely a consciousness of what is wrong with our technics, but with the moraIs that guide them. The surgica1 conscience is the fruit of knowIedge, training and cuhure and in the science and art of surgery, and the purely technical sense, can be developed and highly cultivated. ‘The moral conscience,’ continued Dr. Matas, ‘is that intangihIe something, the still, small voice that, rising from the depths of our innermost selves whispers its warnings when \ve are doing wrong. It is the spirit of ancestral generations which, whether good or bad, is housed in us while in transit to our successors. Conscience is therefore an inheritance; and the seed of good or evi1 is impIanted in us with our birth. Like other seeds, it wiII thrive when we11 cultivated, or it may atroph>- or perish when it is planted in sterile soi1. It is therefore influenced, for better or for worse, b,v the conditions and laws of its environment. ‘The majority of those born of normal, healthy, honest and decent parents have the right seed sown in them when they are born.
721
722
Editorial
But conscience is erratic. Some people it misses altogether. They are born without the spark that brings it into existence. In others it is so smaII and atrophied that it becomes Iike the appendix, a useIess and dangerous nuisance which might as we11 be cut out aItogether. ‘When a man wakens to the ring of his conscience, gets to work and starts to put his house in order, we may say he has character. Character is the wiI1 to put into action what the voice of conscience has roused in him. Conscience, without the wiI1 to act upon its biddings, is powerIess and might as we11 be dead. ‘When a man has neither conscience nor character, he cannot be a good man, and if he
is not a good man he cannot be a good surgeon. And no matter how skiIIfuIIy he may take out appendices, and gaI1 bIadders, resect stomachs, do hernias, and other fine jobs in surgery, we don’t want him, and he need not appIy for FeIIowship in the American CoIIege of Surgeons, for he wiIl not be accepted.“’ Can one think of or write a better creed for a surgeon? If a11 surgeons Iived up to this creed and cultivated a surgica1 conscience, their standing in the pubIic eye wouId be enviabIe and the quaIity of their work almost beyond criticism. T. S. W.
American
Journal
of Surgery
A
VOL.
PRACTICAL
1952 by The American Journal
JOURNAL
of Surgery, Inc.
BUILT
LXXX111
ON
MERIT
NUMBER
SIX
THE SURGICAL CONSCIENCE
I
F any practicing surgeon in this country does not know in some detaiI the medical Iife of Dr. RudoIph Matas of New Orleans, that surgeon is a poorIy informed man indeed. In our opinion, and this is pureIy personal, Dr. Matas is the outstanding surgeon of this country of the past six decades. His reputation and fame are worId wide. He is a true friend. We have been honored for the past quarter of a century in having had him on our Editorial Board. The Bureau of New Orleans News sent us a news item concerning Dr. Matas, and quoted from a repIy he made in accepting his latest honor. You will note Dr. Matas defines what in his judgment makes for a real surgeon. We helieve every mentaIIy honest physician wiI1 echo Dr. Matas’ words. Therefore, w-e quote aImost in fuI1 the announcement which we received: “In New OrIeans a feIIowship in the American College of Surgeons was bestowed upon Dr. Rudolph Matas, professor emeritus of surgery at TuIane University. The feIIowship was conferred by Dr. AIton Ochsner, president of the American CoIIege of Surgeons and WiIham Henderson, Professor and Director, Department of Surgery, TuIane University. “Dr. Matas, who served as president of the College of Surgeons in 1925 and who is one of the founders, is the first man ever intimateI:, associated with the College of Surgeons to receive the award. “In acknowledging the award Dr. nlatas said: ‘It is very gratifying to me to.have this
award conferred upon me and it is especiaIIy gratifying to have Dr. Ochsner, my successor as Professor of Surgery at Tulane and now President of the CoIIege of Surgeons, to confer it.’ “He said, too, that it has always been the traditiarrof the American CoIIege of Surgeons ‘to build up men fitted to carry on the flaming torch of progress handed to them by their predecessors . . . to this end, it has and is endeavoring to stimuIate the cultivation of a surgical conscience. By this we mean not merely a consciousness of what is wrong with our technics, but with the moraIs that guide them. The surgica1 conscience is the fruit of knowIedge, training and cuhure and in the science and art of surgery, and the purely technical sense, can be developed and highly cultivated. ‘The moral conscience,’ continued Dr. Matas, ‘is that intangihIe something, the still, small voice that, rising from the depths of our innermost selves whispers its warnings when \ve are doing wrong. It is the spirit of ancestral generations which, whether good or bad, is housed in us while in transit to our successors. Conscience is therefore an inheritance; and the seed of good or evi1 is impIanted in us with our birth. Like other seeds, it wiII thrive when we11 cultivated, or it may atroph>- or perish when it is planted in sterile soi1. It is therefore influenced, for better or for worse, b,v the conditions and laws of its environment. ‘The majority of those born of normal, healthy, honest and decent parents have the right seed sown in them when they are born.
721
722
Editorial
But conscience is erratic. Some people it misses altogether. They are born without the spark that brings it into existence. In others it is so smaII and atrophied that it becomes Iike the appendix, a useIess and dangerous nuisance which might as we11 be cut out aItogether. ‘When a man wakens to the ring of his conscience, gets to work and starts to put his house in order, we may say he has character. Character is the wiI1 to put into action what the voice of conscience has roused in him. Conscience, without the wiI1 to act upon its biddings, is powerIess and might as we11 be dead. ‘When a man has neither conscience nor character, he cannot be a good man, and if he
is not a good man he cannot be a good surgeon. And no matter how skiIIfuIIy he may take out appendices, and gaI1 bIadders, resect stomachs, do hernias, and other fine jobs in surgery, we don’t want him, and he need not appIy for FeIIowship in the American CoIIege of Surgeons, for he wiIl not be accepted.“’ Can one think of or write a better creed for a surgeon? If a11 surgeons Iived up to this creed and cultivated a surgica1 conscience, their standing in the pubIic eye wouId be enviabIe and the quaIity of their work almost beyond criticism. T. S. W.
American
Journal
of Surgery