Who’s Who in Orthopedics
At this time he also speculated in many small patents and it is said that unsuspecting tradesmen paid dearly for their infringement of forgotten patent rights of his inventions. In 1854, on the recommendation of Lord Palmerston, Ward was appointed commissioner of sewers and evolved a plan for the drainage of London. The theory was acknowledged to be excellent, but was said to be impossible of execution: it was described as the
“quart-into pint-pot” plan. Political unrest at this period, combined, maybe, with his advanced and eccentric ideas, caused him to lose his office, though he apparently continued his investigations into the subject of water supply, for in September 1856 he addressed the International Congress of Public Health in Brussels and in the same year prepared the second edition of Human Osteology.
Two years later, a letter from Ward on purifica- tion of the Thames was published by William Coningham, Esq., MP, to whom it had been addressed. Apart from this, nothing is known of his activities for almost 20 years, though Sir John Simons, Medical Officer of Health for London, who had been a fellow student at King’s College, mentions in his “Personal Recollections” that before his death Ward suffered “enfeeblement.”
In 1875, Ward completed the third edition of Human Osteology. His mental and physical powers deteriorated to such an extent that he entered St. George’s Retreat Lunatic Asylum at Ditchling, near Lewes, and died of general paral- ysis of the insane on November 15, 1877.
Ward’s experiments to show the nature and composition of bone provide interesting conclu- sions. He studied the elasticity of the clavicle. On page 370 of Human Osteology, Ward illustrated the triangle in the neck of the femur with which his name is still associated. A similar area is to be found in the calcaneum.
Ward was particularly interested in the special structure of bone whereby its strength was increased. He made this observation:
The arrangement of the cancellous tissue in the ends of the femur is very remarkable; and, as it illustrates the general mechanical principles which determine the structure of this tissue throughout the skeleton, it should engage our particular attention. In the lower extremity of the bone, it consists of numerous slender columns, which spring on all sides from the interior surface of the compact cylinder, and descend, con- verging towards each other, so as to form a series of inverted arches, adapted by their pointed form to sustain concussion or pressure transmitted from below.
These converging columns not only meet but decussate 346
Frederick Oldfield WARD
1818–1877
Frederick Oldfield Ward entered the medical school of King’s College in October 1833, when he was 15 years of age. His parents resided at that time in Camberwell and his early education had been gained with a Dr. Knox of Tonbridge. His career as a student appears to have been success- ful enough and we know that he gained a medal in chemistry in 1835 and a silver medal in botany in 1837. While still a student, he wrote Human Osteology, which was published in 1838. In the preface he said that his book was the result
“partly of researches in the museum and dissect- ing room, prosecuted at intervals during the last five years: partly of a careful perusal and com- parison of the best English and foreign works on the subject,” and added that his aim in the work was brevity.
But holding that true brevity consists not in expressing ideas in a small space but in conveying them in a short time, I have not thought it inconsistent with this design to dilate freely upon some obscure and difficult points which have been passed over in a few lines by pre- vious writers . . . Whatever contradictory statements came under my notice in the course of this comparision were noted down, and made the subject of careful research in several extensive anatomical collections . . . which afforded me the opportunity of comparing nearly two hundred specimens of each bone.
The book is of small dimensions. The pages of the first edition measure only two and three- quarters by four and a half inches, the volume being one and three-quarters inches thick. Though it cannot be said to present the attractions of the modern textbook, its text and illustrations achieve a degree of accuracy and a level of descriptive writing that is seldom encountered today.
No record can be found of ward taking the final qualifying medical examination, but we know that for some years he practiced as a surgeon. His interests extended far beyond the confines of medicine.
He took service as a clerk to Joseph Hume, who introduced him to Edwin Chadwick, both of whom were pioneers of the new medicolegal group of sanitary reformers. Fired with their enthusiasm, Ward wrote at this time a number of popular articles in which he criticized water supply and hygiene and proposed control under one central board of all sanitation in Great Britain.
each other; and they are further strengthened by innu- merable connecting filaments and laminae, which cross them in all directions, so that no single arch could break without those in its neighbourhood also giving way.
Hence, notwithstanding the tenuity and brittleness of each several fibre, the reticular structure possesses great strength as a whole.
Ward’s account of the triangle in the neck of the femur attracted little attention for many years, but the introduction of roentgen rays showed clearly that the translucent triangular area was a normal feature of the femoral neck.
succeeded in performing the first arthroscopic meniscectomy. Many of the world’s finest sur- geons, including Dr. Robert Jackson and Dr.
Richard O’Connor, visited Tokyo Teishin Hospi- tal to learn arthroscopy. These surgeons faithfully passed on the teaching of Professor Watanabe to their own trainees.
In 1974, Watanabe founded the International Arthroscopy Association (IAA), and was elected its first president. It is strange to recall that one of the purposes of the IAA was to prevent the tech- nique slipping into obscurity as it had done pre- viously in the late 1930s.
In 1975, he was elected the first president of the Japanese Arthroscopy Association. He devoted his whole life to the development of the arthroscope, not only in Japan but also in the world. He received many prizes; in 1983, he was awarded the Asahi Prize, one of the largest scientific awards in Japan, for his unique contri- butions to the development and improvement of arthroscopy.
I was one of Professor Watanabe’s students in 1972 and 1973. At that time he was already trying to develop a small arthroscope, video systems, and arthroscopic surgery. Even in the midst of busy research work, he handled the arthroscope very gently as if treating his beloved grandchild.
Professor Watanabe stated in the preface of the Atlas of Arthroscopy, 2nd edition, in 1969, that it would give him great pleasure if arthroscopy were to bring about some progress in orthopedics and rheumatology. Now arthroscopic surgery is worldwide, for many joints. Arthroscopes are indispensable in orthopedics and rheumatology.
He could hardly have foreseen that his work would lead to a revolution in the management of joint disorders or that arthroscopy would become one of the most frequently performed orthopedic operations. Professor Watanabe’s dedication to arthroscopy placed orthopedic surgery at the fore- front of the revolution in minimal access surgery that is now sweeping the world of surgery.
He died on October 15, 1995, of complications after the apparently successful treatment of a femoral neck fracture at Tokyo University and Teikyo University Hospitals. His delightful face, when he talked about arthroscopy in his hospital bed before he died, is an unforgettable memory.
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Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Masaki WATANABE
1911–1995
Professor Masaki Watanabe was born in 1911 in Nagano, and after gaining a BS in medicine from Tokyo Imperial University in 1937, he started training in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Tokyo Imperial University. He then began his research into arthroscopy under Professor Kenji Takagi. This work was interrupted by the Second World War, but in 1949 Dr. Watanabe became director of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Tokyo Teishin Hospital, where he put his heart and soul into the development of arthroscopy and came to be respected as the world’s leading expo- nent of the technique.
In 1960, he developed the Watanabe Type 21 arthroscope, which became the standard instru- ment around the world for almost two decades, and in 1962, after great effort and research, he
