Sir Robert Jones / [M. S Henderson].

  • Henderson, M. S
Date:
1933
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sir Robert Jones / [M. S Henderson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprint from SURGERY, GYNECOLOGY AND OBSTETRICS July, 1933, Vol. LVII, 120-122 2 SIR ROBERT JONES M. S. HENDERSON, M.D., F.A.C.S., Rochester, Minnesota ON January 14, 1933, surgery sustained a great loss in the death of Sir Robert Jones. Certainly no British surgeon ever had greater influence on American ortho¬ pedic surgery than he. Robert Jones was born in 1858 in Wales, took the diploma of the Royal College of Sur¬ geons at the early age of twenty, became as¬ sociated with his uncle, Hugh Owen Thomas, the son of a famous bone setter, a man of rare ability and the originator of the Thomas splint, and soon was appointed to the surgical staff of the Royal Southern Hospital of Liverpool. Hugh Owen Thomas’ private and charity practice was very large and chiefly industrial. It was therefore not strange that, although Sir Robert’s efforts were at first along general surgical lines, his practice ultimately became so predominantly orthopedic that he found it necessary to limit it to that specialty. Thus was established the most interesting ortho¬ pedic clinic in Europe. Although the work of Jones was well known early by the small group of surgeons compris¬ ing the American Orthopedic Association, it was not until 1907 that American surgeons as a whole appreciated the remarkable work he was doing. The interest of these men was awakened by William J. Mayo who, in 1907, following one of his many journeys abroad, forcibly called attention to what was going on in Liverpool. He said: “ Just as Lawson Tait carried sound surgery into the abdomen, and Mr. Victor Horsley into the cranial cavity, so has Mr. Jones carried sound surgical principles into orthopedic practice, and rapid cures are the result in a large number of cases in which treatment had been given for months and years by orthopedic apparatus. This does not mean that Mr. Jones has discarded these measures. He is most careful in the after- treatment and uses mechanical contrivances for their proper purposes as an adjunct to sur¬ gery, not in place of it. . . . All operations are done under ether anaesthesia. The asepsis is most painstaking and thorough. He is expe¬ ditious, yet neglects not the smallest detail and his wonderful experience enables him to do wizard-like operations with a precision that is startling. So unassuming and modest is the man that he is, I believe, entirely unaware of his great ability.” Sir Robert’s operations were models of technical skill, and his plans of treatment examples of an orderly attack on the problem to be solved. One soon discovered that his real enthusiasm was for the ultimate result to be achieved and not for the brilliance of the actual operation. The ease with which he would perform fifteen to thirty operations in an afternoon was astonishing. As the years went by many honors came to him. He was knighted in 1917; two years