The history of parathyroid surgery, 1850–1996: the Excelsior Surgical Society 1998 Edward D Churchill Lecture

Abstract

I am honored to deliver the 1998 Excelsior Surgical Society/Edward D Churchill Lecture. This society was the product of military surgery during World War II in the North African and Mediterranean theaters of operation. In periods between their stressful work, surgeons in the theater were provided opportunities for exchanging ideas and promoting social graces. The second auxiliary surgical teams and other surgical officers developed new friendships and renewed old acquaintances. It was only natural that thoughts toward perpetuation of these friendships would develop after the war. The initial meeting of this society was held in October 1946 in Boston, MA. In May 1951, its name was officially changed to the Excelsior Surgical Society. Frank Simeone has reminded us that societies, clubs, and publications are the hallmark of physicians and surgeons. American medical personnel actively participated in conferences held in the Institute of Health at the University of Rome, which were later published as the Proceedings of the Conference of Army Surgeons, Central Mediterranean Forces. Other societies developed, ie, The Constantian Society, the Biserte County Medical Society of Tunisia, and the North Caserte Medical Society (Italy). The Excelsior Hotels in Rome and Florence were frequent sites for these interludes, so the club was named after the Excelsior Hotel in Rome (Fig. 1). This society later established a Churchill Lecture. The initial lecture was given by Alfred Blalock, of Johns Hopkins. The first Churchill Lecture under the auspices of the American College of Surgeons was delivered by W Dean Warren, of Emory University (Fig. 2). The Excelsior Society was founded to honor Colonel Edward Delos Churchill, who would become the one and only honorary member (Fig. 3). Early in his career, Dr Churchill distinguished himself as a pioneer in thoracic surgery. He performed and reported the first pericardiectomy in America for constrictive pericarditis, clarified the physiology and surgical anatomy of the lung, developed a rational approach to the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchiectasis, adenoma and carcinoma of the lung, and surgery of the esophagus. Dr Churchill succeeded Edward P Richardson as the John Homans Professor of Surgery at the Harvard Medical School, a position he held until 1962. Churchill, a surgeon’s surgeon, deplored the fragmentation of surgery, believed that young surgeons should become well grounded in the principles of surgery, and advised his residents to spend at least 1 year with a master in the basic sciences during residency. Edward Churchill was indeed a surgical biologist.