History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

208 History of Medical Practice in Illinoisanastomosis, taking his idea from Denans, a French Surgeon of Marseilles,who in 1826 had devised a silver or zinc ring used on the ends of the bowelloops and connected together so that the outer walls of the intestine becameadherent, the inner muscle sloughed away, and the rings passed onout of the alimentary tract. Finally, in 1892, Murphy perfected his anastomosisbutton and performed the first operation for its use on a humanbeing in 31 minutes at the Cook County Hospital. His first report in theliterature was in December 1892 in the Medical Record, under the title"Cholecysto-intestinal, Gastro-intestinal, Entero-intestinal Anastomosisand Approximation Without Sutures." Up to that time only 1 1 cases hadbeen put on record in which an attempt had been made to join the gallbladderto the intestine to relieve obstruction, and only 47 complete successfulcholecystectomies had been performed.In this year (1892), Murphy joined the staff at St. Joseph's Hospital inChicago in the capacity of attending surgeon. Senn was still holding theappointment of Chief of Staff in this hospital; his chief assistant was Dr.Hartmann who later became one of Chicago's leading surgeons.In 1893, Murphy presented a paper before the American Medical Associationentitled "Original Research in Abdominal Surgery— Ideal Approximationof Abdominal Viscera without Suture." Later the New YorkAcademy of Medicine invited him to address them on December 7, 1893.In 1894, at the International Medical Congress in Rome, Senn belittledthe Murphy button and, in his Presidential Address before the AmericanMedical Association, he reviewed intestinal anastomosis and the use of thebutton. Murphy proceeded undaunted. In 1897, he gave a paper on "Resectionof Arteries and Veins Injured in Continuity—End to End Suture,"and also gave this as his address before the International Congress of Medicinein Moscow during August 1897. In 1898 he gave the Oration inSurgery before the American Medical Association on lung abscess andlobectomy, and reported the use of nitrogen gas by injection into thepleural cavity to produce lung collapse and to treat pulmonary tuberculosis./. B. Hamilton died on December 24, 1898. During his professional careerhe had been Surgeon to Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C. Duringthe Civil War he had established a cholera hospital, and for a time he wasSurgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service. He later became Professorof Surgery at Rush Medical College and was Surgeon to the PresbyterianHospital of Chicago. He had been editor of the Journal of theAmerican Medical Association, Director of the Chicago Public Library andthe Presbyterian Hospital, and Superintendent of the State Asylum atElgin.As a closing paragraph following this list of surgeons in Illinois, the