William Williams Keen, January 19, 1837 - June 7, 1932 / [Franklin H. Martin].

  • Martin, Franklin H. (Franklin Henry), 1857-1935.
Date:
1932
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: William Williams Keen, January 19, 1837 - June 7, 1932 / [Franklin H. Martin]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprint from SURGERY, GYNECOLOGY AND OBSTETRICS July, 1932, Vol. LV, 120-123 MEMOIRS WILLIAM WILLIAMS KEEN January 19, 1837—June 7, 1932 “/ believe in God and in Evolution. To all sincere seekers after truth: who revere the Bible as the word of God; who revere na¬ ture as the work of God; and who believe that rightly interpreted they must surely agree. ... To develop great men . . . and then by death to quench them in utter oblivion would be unworthy of Omnipotence. To my mind, it is simply an impossible conclusion. Man’s soul must be immortal.” W. W. Keen. THE death of this eminent surgeon—the lover of his personal God, a patriotic fighter for his beloved country, who wore its uniform in two wars (in the Great War at the age of eighty years)—has brought the whole thinking world to attention in admiration of a fine and useful life, and the pro¬ fession of medicine mourns with deep sorrow the passing of a beloved comrade. His was a devoted service of seventy years in the practice of the great learned profession—scientific medicine. He was an ardent supporter of every moral, scientific, and progressive advance in civic, state, and national affairs. The American College of Surgeons and its official journal, Surgery, Gynecol¬ ogy and Obstetrics, acknowledge a personal loss. Dr. Keen was the first surgeon of our country to accept and have conferred upon him an Honorary Fellowship in the College. He contributed to many of its scientific meetings, and lent his inspiring presence at numerous of its annual sessions. He was an early subscriber and a frequent contributor to the columns of the Journal. In the Great War—the eldest member of the Medical Reserve Corps—he was a per¬ sonal friend. By his pen, his personal contacts, his orations, and his friendly ad¬ vice he was an inspiring aid to those of us who had to do with enrollment for war. During his span of life—ninety-five years—his was the rare privilege of witnessing and participating in every advance in surgery, and of knowing all of the great men in medicine of his day. He began his medical studies in the Fall of i860, and graduated in March, 1862. He early “declined to be a champion of the Past” but assumed the role of “a Herald of the Dawn.” In 1922, in his oration delivered on the occasion of the conferring upon him of the Bigelow Medal, he took as his theme Sixty Years of Surgery.1 He compared the poverty of knowledge 1 Boston M. & S. J., 1922, clxxxvii, 592-600.