Annual Meeting was convened on October 20, 1 997, at the San Diego Marriott Marina and Towers with Vice-President C. R. Stephen chairing. President Fink was unable to attend for personal reasons. Our annual Residents Essay Award was pre sented to Dr. David C. Lai of the Univer sity of Rochester Medical Center for Polymath beneath the Firedamp: the story ofJ.B.S . Haldane, which will be presented at our annual Spring meeting in Toronto. Two other very good works were cited: Dr. S uresh Kannan of the Brigh a m and Women's Hospital for Walter Channing and Nathan Cooley Keep: the first obstet ric anesthetics in America , and Dr. Ricardo Sepulveda of the University of Florida, Department of Anesthesiology, for The History of Patient Controlled Anal gesia. They have been invited to present their papers in Toronto. David M. Little Award for fine writ ing in our field recognized The Last Days of Will iam Green Morton (J Clin Anesthesiol 8: 431 -34, 1 997) by LeRoy D. Vandam. committee also recognized two other contributions deserving honor able mention: von Foregger, Ph.D. 1 8 72-1 960: Manufacturer of Anesthesia Equipment (Anesthesiology 84: 1 90-20, 1996) by Richard Foregger, and Who Said Childbirth is Natural? Medical Mis sion of Grantly Dick Read (Anesthesiol ogy 84 :95 5 -964, 1 996) written by Dr. Donald Caton. . A brief treasurer's report followed: we are in the black with adequate reserves and will publish a 1 998 Directory of Members to be sent with the annual dues notice. Dues remain at $40 for regular members, $10 for Resident Members, and $15 for new mem bers introduced by a Regular Member. members elected the slate of officers and directors submitted by Council. For the next year C.R. Stephen will be our Presi dent, T.C . Smith Vice-President, and D.R. Bacon S ecretary-Treasurer. Peter McDermott and Carlos M. Nunez join the council with incumbents D. Caton, w'D. Hammonds, G.S . Bause, M.S. Albin, and A.J. Wright. D.K Cope and Don Caton con tinue as Associate Editors and C.R. Stephen as Editor of our Bulletin. B.S . Dunbar and D.R. Bacon have ended their term as Di rectors and have our thanks for their ser vice. Annual Discourse was given by Albert Jonsen, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of History and Medical Ethics, University of Washington. His cho sen topic, The Pope and the Professor, covered an intersection of Ethics and An esthesia History in the middle of the Twen tieth Century. It was not a scintillating popularization with beautiful polychrome illustrations of old documents and da guerreotypes of historic figures, but a care ful line-drawing with shading. J onsen sketched the concepts of death, religion and medical opinion in change and evolu tion, as developing technology created new concepts, attitudes and problems. Ancient cultures and religions em braced a Definition of Death that involved life or soul leaving the body, associating Spirit with Breath. When breathing stops, life ends. But starting with Harvey and the blooming of physiology, that Breath-of-Life view was to change, perhaps culminating in the 1 952 Danish polio epidemic when 250 medical students kept 75 apneic para lyzed patients alive by round-the-clock bagging. cumbersome Drinker Tank Respirator was replaced by mechanical ventilators in an explosion of respiratory physiologic knowledge. Apnea did not end Life. Pope Pius XII had a personal interest in medical ethics, expressed in 120 formal addresses from the 1 930s to the 1 950s. Dr. Hague, an Austrian physician, formally asked three questions of the Pope: 1) does one have the right or obligation to use mechanical ventilation in all patients and to discontinue it: 2) with a heart still beat ing, or 3) in a deeply comatose and para lyzed patient? An Austrian Jesuit Theolo gian, Father Huths, probably provided the analysis that the Pope used for a 1957 re ply, at the World Congress of Anesthesi ologists session on Reanimation (read re suscitation). answer to the question was, in brief, an obligation to use ordi nary measures in caring for patients and to consider the patient, his life and his fam ily in the decision. Pope defined death as the separation of soul and body, and excused theology from deciding what might be burden in caring for patients, giving the decision to physi cians and scholars-they must decide what was ordinary and extraordinary in each instance, based on current medical knowl edge, ethics, philosophy and family wishes. BULLETIN OF ANESTHESIA HISTORY
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Jan 1, 2001
A.J Wright 
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