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H. Augustus Wilson M.D. (1853-1919)
Clinical Lecturer in Orthopaedic Surgery (1892-1904)
and First Chairman (1904-1918) |
Augustus Wilson was promoted to Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery in 1892. It would seem appropriate to regard this promotion
as the exact point in Jefferson history when orthopaedics began the process of ultimate separation from general surgery. Support for this contention comes from Wilson's attitude, since he clearly regarded himself as an orthopaedic surgeon
rather than a general surgeon. As early as 1887, he had published an article in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia County Medical Society that described a new method for preparing dry gypsum bandages used in the constmction of plaster casts. He was invited to join the fledgling American Orthopaedic Association in 1891 and was well regarded by his colleagues in this new organization. He served as Vice President in 1893 and President in 1902. He represented the first Jefferson orthopaedist to hold a major elected office in national orthopaedics. A Jefferson representative was not destined to secure
a second major national orthopaedic office until 1979.
A significant reorganization of the Jefferson
faculty occurred in 1904. Several disciplines,
formerly regarded as part of general surgery, were
identified as new and separate Departments. The
minutes of the Administrative Committee meeting
of November 28, 1904 (forerunner of the
Executive Council) state "in view of the fact that
the faculty is now composed of Professors who
teach and examine in genito-urinary surgery,
orthopaedic surgery and laryngology, it is
suggested that the Professor of Practice of Surgery
and of Clinical Surgery shall be relieved of
teaching subjects pertaining to these branches."
Minutes of the Administrative Committee
meetings before 1904 do not exist, so one can only
guess the reasons for this faculty reorganization. It
is probably accurate to surmise that a need was
identified to enlarge the major faculty. An
interesting question to consider is why Jefferson
chose, in 1904, to decrease the responsibility
of the Department of Surgery by creating three
new Departments out of the fields that were
traditionally considered surgical subspecialties. In
many, if not most, medical schools, these evolving
surgical disciplines were given some separate
identity by simply designating them Divisions of
General Surgery.
Whatever the reasons happened to be, this
action of the Administrative Committee created a
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Jefferson
in 1904 and made H. Augustus Wilson its first
Professor and Chairman. Jefferson thus became
one of the first medical schools in the country to
have a separate Department of Orthopaedic
Surgery. It is somewhat ironic to note that despite
the suggestion of the Administrative Committee
that the Professor of Practice of Surgery and of
Clinical Surgery "be relieved of teaching subjects
pertaining to these branches," the Department of
Surgery continued to dominate the treatment of
fractures in Jefferson Hospital and continued to
teach fracture principles to Jefferson medical
students until about 1948.
Wilson, by all accounts, was a good teacher and
an effective Department Chairman. He appointed
J. Torrence Rugh (Jefferson, 1892) to serve as Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery in 1905
and Arthur J. Davidson (Jefferson, 1907) as Instructor of Orthopaedic Surgery in
1908. Both of these men figured prominently in the growth and development of the new Department. Treatment of orthopaedic deformities at this time was given mostly by physical manipulation, mechanical traction devices, and bracing. Not much in the way of open surgery was performed except by a few daring pioneers. References to surgical correction of deformity in the years around 1910 generally referred to the cutting of tight tendons performed through very
small incisions. Rugh ultimately succeeded Wilson as Chairman in 1918, and Davidson remained in active teaching in the outpatient clinic until 1954. Arthur Davidson became a recognized expert in the care of foot problems and freely imparted his knowledge to students in the orthopaedic clinic. Unfortunately, he could never be persuaded to put his considerable knowledge into book form. |
Writing in the 1936 Clinic Yearbook) Rugh made
the following comments about these early years of
orthopaedics at Jefferson:
"The outpatient clinic was organized by Dr. Allis
and now forms an important part of the student's
instruction. The first dispensary was in the
amphitheater of the old hospital. Dr. James Manno
of the class of 1887 was chief of clinic and
cooperated with Professor Wilson until IR96 when
he resigned to accept the orthopaedic professorship
in the Medico-Chimgical College. During these
years of Dr. Wilson's service, great advances were
made in orthopaedics. The surgical phases of the
corrective work increased and became more
important. New procedures and discoveries
regarding the prevention and correction of
deformities added greatly to the success of the
work in Jefferson."
Professor Wilson resigned the Chairmanship in
1918 and died of uremia on April 16, 1919. He had
attained a national reputation in orthopaedic
surgery that reflected favorably on Jefferson and
its new Department. His obituary was published
in 1919 in the Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery
forerunner of the present Journal of Bone and Joint
Surgery. Its author, Dr. R.W. Lovett of Boston,
said: "I should say that the man's chief
characteristics were earnestness, unselfishness,
kind-heartedness and absolute devotion to a cause
once undertaken. He was a man of ideas which he
never sacrificed, his profession and his family filled
his life, and he had few outside interests. He was
a most indomitable worker and he had one
agreeable trait, that of making the man with
whom he talked think more highly of himself than
he did before the conversation, for he seemed to
look for the best that was in each man and to
dwell on that side of his relation to each one."
James T. Rugh, M.D.
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