SIR FREDERICK TREVES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 455, 13 March 1909, Page 15

SIR FREDERICK TREVES.

A GREAT SURGEON. _ An article of very Unusual interest appears in th© l 'l s all Mali Magazine." Its subject is interesting, and its writer equally interesting. It is about Sir Frederick Treves, and it is written by Dr. AVilfred Grenfell, who was Treves's pupil at London 'Hospital, but who has made a great name for himself by his work among the dtop-sea fishermen of Labhtdof. It is Dr. Grenfell who has suggested to til© Nbrwegian Government the advisability of sending officially to examine a grave said to be that of Andree, tho illfated explorer, and Dr. Grenfell has been asked to undertake the control of the necessary expedition. . ''To me ho has always been the ideal allround man," says Dr. Grenfell, "and I would just as soon to-day take his advico oil how much of tho'main-sheet to get to claw a vessel best to windward, as I would on how venture in a delicate surgical operation. 'If it is a surgical lecture he is to deliver, you can bo suro you will go away with tho facts in mnemonic fashion. I remember c to impress tho definite existence of tho peritoneum and its importance on our (^rV 1 a surgical lecture o/ice, by saying; Gentlemen, I have coma hero from dissertin" a hippopotamus at the Zoo, and 1 was able to swing freely by its peritoneum.' (He Has surgoon-in-ordinary to tho London Zoological Gardens, to fill up the time between the thousand other duties.) If I were asked to name any man I have known personally, anywhere, who has made the most of his life. I should without hesitation say Sir Frederick Treves. Vet with countless other interests and occupations, it is as a surgical author/ and a most brilliant exponent of tho surgical art, that Sir Frederick has risen to fame. It was true once, and I believe it is truft still, that ' Sir Frederick Treves is the. most/prolific sureical author alive.' "His pen and knife were, when-1 first knew him. nevor idloj and I can hardly say fiom which I learned most. His books were classics on both sides of the Atlantic!, and I doubt if any surgical work yet written can comparo with Treves's 'Operative Surgerv' for tho practical assistance it gives to "a young operator who is in doubt. " The book is just like tho man. It says Do this ono thing,' ' Use that one instrument,' 'Make that particular incision,' 'Insert that ligature and no other'—so that you can go up to your work confident that all will go well. You are 110 longer in doubt, and tho trepidation resulting from it, oven though there bo better ways of working; for you are inspired witlf your author's own confidence—;a feeling so absolutely essential to success in surgonv You seetn almost to see your patient walking away and grateful before you begin. "In teaching, also, at tho London Hospital, I never knew i\ny man who could command tho hearing ho could. His house-surgeon would bo taxed to his utmost on his visiting days to get tho_ great crowd that used to follow Sir Frederick round the wards to allow spaco for oven nursos and drcssors to tho patients' bedsides. "When acting in that capacity, I myself naVo had to stand behind rows of graduates and undergraduates from all over tho world, who had com© untold distances to hear him, and wero not going to be shouldered into the background, while tho humble house-surgeon tried to creato an unseemly disturbance bv getting near the patients' in order to explain tho progress of tho case. Not that that was generally necessary, for, with ton thousand,other duties, Sit Frederick always wont round his wards alone and personally saw every. ono of his cases every Sunday morning, notobook in hand." i