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| Vol. 20, No. 21 |
| November 15, 1998 |
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Book Gives History of Surgery
The History of Surgery in Houston
This is a wonderful history, a project of the Houston Surgical Society to commemorate its 50-year anniversary and written by a large number of contributors - all surgeons - under the general editorship of Dr. Kenneth Mattox. The 490-page volume offers fascinating glimpses not only of the many talented surgeons and the innovative work they accomplished, but of Houston itself. The book begins, appropriately, in 1836 with Dr. Amos Pollard, a "Yankee" surgeon from Massachusetts, who'd joined the Texans at the Alamo; excerpts from his diary during the last days in the siege of the fort detail his lack of supplies. He died when the Alamo was taken. That same year, Houston was founded by the Allen brothers. Dr. Alexander Wray Ewing - who had treated Santa Anna's wounds at the Battle of San Jacinto - became the surgeon general of the Republic of Texas and established his private practice in Houston. Fascinating anecdotes and occurrences fill this book. For example: "Drs. J.H. Sampson, J. Allen Kyle, and W.A. Stevens, all of Houston, chartered the Physician's and Surgeon's Hospital Company of Houston on Calhoun Street on May 14, 1907. That same month a staff of volunteer physicians providing 'general surgery,' including one A. Philo Howard, began rendering free service under the management of the Salvation Army. Making this a banner year for offering surgical services, Drs. Haley and Barrell opened a sanitarium at 811 Main Street for 'performing surgical operations.'" While the names DeBakey, Cooley, Duke and several others are well-known to Houstonians, many pioneering surgeons may not be, and these are profiles - from the 1920s through the 1960s - which are intriguing and stimulating: pediatric surgeon Luke W. Able; head and neck cancer surgeon Alando J. Ballantyne; general and obstetrical surgeon J. Peyton Barnes; thoracic surgeon Arthur Charles Beall, Jr.; plastic surgeon Ray Brauer; cancer surgeon R. Lee Clark; cardiovascular surgeon E. Stanley Crawford; plastic surgeon Thomas Cronin; thoracic surgeon Jack B. Fitzgerald; surgical gastroenterologist Paul Jordan; neurosurgeon James Greenwood, Jr.; general surgeon George L. Jordan, Jr. A lengthy chapter details the hospitals with surgical services, including hospitals in the suburbs. The surgical training programs are discussed, as well as the lengthy list of surgical "firsts" which happened in Houston. Throughout the volume, a dominant theme is that Houston has been a great center of surgical teaching and learning. It seems that all of these surgeons had not only a genius for the operating room but for the OR as classroom. - ROGER WIDMEYER
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