PROGRAM OVERVIEW
  CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT
  HISTORY
   Introduction

   Oscar H. Allis, M.D.

   H. Augustus Wilson M.D.

   James T. Rugh, M.D.

   James R. Martin, M.D.

   Anthony F. DePalma, M.D.

   John J. Gartland, M.D.

   Richard H. Rothman, M.D., Ph.D.
  PROGRAM STRUCTURE
  ATTENDING PHYSICIANS
  CONFERENCES
  BENEFITS/ANCILLARY STAFF
  AFFILIATED HOSPITALS
James R. Martin, M.D. (1886-1956)
Third Chairman
Second James Edwards Professor (1939-1950)
James Martin became a member of the orthopaedic department in 1913 and served originally as Rugh's assistant in private practice. He received several promotions within the Department leading to Assistant Professor and Chief of the Outpatient Clinic by 1938. In that year he resigned to accept appointments as Chief Surgeon at the State Hospital for Crippled Children at Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, and Director of the Social Security Programs for Crippled Children in Pennsylvania. He was called back to Jefferson in 1939 to become the second James Edwards Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery. In accord with his deep interest in the care of the handicapped child, Martin initiated an association between Jefferson and the State Hospital for Crippled Children. Now known as the Elizabethtown Hospital for Children and Youth, the association begun by Martin has continued to this day. Some Jefferson orthopaedic faculty members still function as active consultants to that institution and some Jefferson orthopaedic residents receive a part of their education and experience in children's orthopaedics there.

Martin was assisted in his teaching and clinical duties by Drs. Arthur J. Davidson, M. Thomas Horovitz, and Ralph C. Hand. In addition to his duties at Jefferson, Dr. Hand functioned as orthopaedic consultant to Saint Edmund's Home for Crippled Children, now located in Rosemont, Pennsylvania. The association between Jefferson and St. Edmund's Home continued with Dr. John J. Dowling (Jefferson, 1947) assuming the consultant role on Dr. Hand's retirement in 1961. Thomas Horovitz was a bright, energetic orthopaedic surgeon whom many at Jefferson considered to be of professorial caliber. He contributed many fine papers to the orthopaedic literature while in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, Horovitz chose not to return to Philadelphia upon his discharge from World War II service. He relocated in Indianapolis, where he eventually became a full Professor at the University of Indiana Medical School.

James Martin lacked J. Torrence Rugh's background and skill in operative orthopaedics. As a consequence, some of the excitement and forward motion generated clinically by Rugh's introduction of new surgical techniques slowed perceptibly. Davidson and Hand were of the old school and not well versed or comfortable with the new surgical techniques. With Horovitz's decision not to return to Jefferson, none of the remaining orthopaedic faculty had either the ski]] or the inclination to pursue surgical correction of physical deformities. Gradually, some of the former mechanical treatment methods discarded by Rugh were reintroduced by Martin This reversal occurred at a time when national interest in the surgical correction of physical deformities was in the ascendancy. As a consequence, the students sensed the subtle change, and interest in orthopaedics among students and hospital interns waned.

Martin was a kind and friendly man, dignified, retiring, and unobtrusive. He was quite content with his work and teaching at Jefferson and shunned the national scene. He was a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons but was never invited to join the American Orthopaedic Association. As a consequence of his totally local presence, orthopaedics at Jefferson lost most of the national prominence it had gained under Wilson and Rugh.
The major accomplishment during Martin's Chairmanship was the establishment of the orthopaedic resident education program. It began modestly in 1946 with two residents appointed yearly and two hospitals, Jefferson and the State Hospital for Crippled Children at Elizabethtown, involved in the clinical experience. Thomas S. Armstrong (Jefferson, 1941) was the first Resident to complete the new program, and he subsequently practiced orthopaedic surgery for many years in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

By 1945 it had become apparent to faculty leaders at Jefferson that orthopaedic surgery was a Department in a relatively stagnant state compared to other medical schools. A quiet search for an exciting, vigorous figure in orthopaedic surgery led them to the Philadelphia Naval Hospital, where Anthony F. DePalma (Jefferson, 1929), completing the final months of his service commitment, had compiled an enviable surgical record. He was induced in 1946 to come to Jefferson to establish a practice with the understanding he would eventually follow Martin as Department Chairman.

Although Martin continued to function as Department Chairman, DePalma's dynamic, driving style soon stamped him as the leader in everything but name only. Janles Martin served as President of the Alumni Association in 1948 and formally retired as Chairman in 1950. He then was appointed Associate Dean of Jefferson Medical College and served in this post until his death in 1956. This loyal and devoted Jeffersonian provided funds in his will for the James R. Martin Nurses' Residence, which was built on the southeast corner of Eleventh and Walnut Streets, where Drs. Thomas Dent Mutter and Samuel D. Gross previously had lived.

Anthony F. DePalma, M.D.

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.