History of Surgery in the United States (from the Illustrated History of Surgery)

Jaber Ansari, M

History of Surgery in the United States (from the Illustrated History of Surgery)

Author

M Jaber Ansari

General and Pediatric Surgery Specialist, Mehrad Hospital

Abstract

The history of surgery in the United States in the nineteenth century is divided into several distinct periods. Each of these periods is characterized by sufficiently different circumstances and conditions to be considered a distinct period. The early decades of the century (1800-1825) were in many ways a continuation of the development of medicine in the thirteen colonies. Few American physicians and surgeons practiced medicine in the early nineteenth century through a systematic and well-organized educational system, for academic and university facilities in the United States were extremely limited, and medical and surgical training required attendance at European medical schools, and few American students had the financial and economic means to pay such a fee. Therefore, the prevailing conditions required that the majority of those who wished to practice medicine in the future were apprenticed to a practicing physician in America and, while working in the offices of existing physicians, studied medical and surgical textbooks.

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