has provided a forum for the advancement of surgical science and has been dedicated to fostering collegiality among surgeons.
The founding members of the New York Surgical Society were among the leaders of American surgery in an era that saw the introduction of many advances, enabling the rapid development of surgical science as we know it today. Most of these names will be found among those of the Presidents of the New York Surgical Society, who are listed from the date of its founding to the present on an adjacent page.
The seminal papers they presented before the Society in its early years included not only that of Doctor McBurney on appendicitis, but also those of Doctor Sands on perityphlitis, Doctor Bull on hernia, Doctor Stimson on innominate aneurysm, and Doctor Weir on cystic degeneration of the vermiform appendix.
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the New York Surgical Society, Fred Bates Lund, M.D., of Boston, the then current President of the American Surgical Association, to which many members of the Society added their luster, had this to say about his colleagues in the New York Surgical Society:
If I might characterize the prevailing temperament of the New York surgeons I have had the privilege of knowing, I would say that they were characterized by indomitable enthusiasm and energy, and sincere love for their profession, qualities which it is easy to see and are most favorable to progress. The Society’s purpose today is as it was when it was founded a century and one quarter ago: to promote the highest standards of surgical practice in the worlds greatest city.
