During the first week of April, 1927, the centenary of the birth of Joseph Lister was celebrated. Ten of his former dressers who were present at a meeting held in King's College Hospital during this celebration emphasized how much the adoption of principles advocated by him had widened the field of surgery. Many diseases formerly regarded as medical have acquired surgical interest because they require surgical therapy. Appendicitis, gallstones, duodenal and gastric ulcer, syndromes associated with perverted secretion of the thyroid gland and the hypophysis, and lesions of the brain and spinal cord are a few of the many diseases that have a decided surgical interest. Surgery no longer confines itself to the consideration of inflammatory processes, amputations, fractures and dislocations, tumors and emergencies.
While the field of surgery has become more and more extensive, the number of hours devoted to it in medical curriculums has been gradually reduced, with