(Anatomy) and Coats Gold Medal of the Calcutta University for original research. Professor Saha was an active member of the Société Interna- tionale de Chirurgie Orthopédique et de Trauma- tologie and attended many of its meetings, presenting papers on the shoulder.
He was invited by several universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan to deliver lectures about his work on the shoulder joint.
position in an American medical school. In addi- tion to his practice, Sayre had the energy to serve as the health officer for the City of New York from 1860 to 1866. In this capacity, he made great improvements in public health, particularly because he recognized the contagious nature of cholera. His activity in the public sphere reached its apex in 1880 when he became president of the American Medical Association, the only orthope- dic surgeon to be so honored. During his tenure in office, he gave strong support for the estab- lishment of the Journal of the American Medical Association, which began publishing in 1882.
Sayre was a prolific author, and his books were widely read throughout the world in translations.
His greatest contributions to orthopedic surgery were in the treatment of tuberculosis of the spine and other joints. Such a dynamic personality could not avoid controversy and indeed he did not try to avoid it. It is interesting to note that his three sons all became orthopedic surgeons.
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Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Lewis Albert SAYRE
1820–1900
Lewis Albert Sayre was the dominant figure in orthopedic surgery in the United States during the nineteenth century. His father, a wealthy farmer in New Jersey, died when Lewis was only 10 years old, and he was brought up by his uncle, a banker in Lexington, Kentucky. He graduated from the Transylvania University in Lexington before attending the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, from which he obtained his medical degree in 1842. By 1853, he had become a visiting surgeon at Bellevue Hospital, where he was an important factor in the founding of Bellevue Hospital Medical School.
Because of his special interest, his large practice consisted mainly of patients with diseases and injuries of the bones and joints. For this reason, in 1861 he was appointed professor of orthopedic surgery, fractures and dislocations at Bellevue Hospital Medical School. This was the first such
Antonio SCARPA
1752–1832
Antonio Scarpa was born near Venice. He
attended medical school in Padua, receiving his
degree at the age of 18! While in Padua, he was
strongly influenced by Morgagni. At the age of
20, Scarpa became professor of anatomy and
theoretical surgery at Modena. Ten years later, he
moved to Pavia as professor of anatomy, becom-
ing professor of surgery also in 1787. He was a brilliant anatomist, whose extraordinary skills as an artist enabled him to illustrate his own works.
He traveled widely in Europe and spoke several languages fluently. Although he is remembered for his anatomic eponyms (e.g. Scarpa’s fascia, Scarpa’s triangle), he should be remembered also as an outstanding surgeon for his operations for vascular disease. In Italy, he is considered to be the father of ophthalmology.
Scarpa’s A Memoir on the Congenital Club Feet of Children and of the Mode of Correcting that Deformity showed his many-sided character.
It combines a thorough review of the foreign literature with a description of the anatomy of the condition and an exposition of a successful method of treatment. It is worth noting that Scarpa’s conception of the underlying pathology of congenital club foot was the beginning of our understanding of this deformity.
Joints. Before that time, his work and career had led him to several prestigious appointments, including director of the International Reference Center for Histo-Pathologic Diagnosis of Bone Tumors and Allied Diseases of the World Health Organization and director of the Latin American Registry of Bone Pathology. He also was an active member of the International Skeletal Society.
Fritz was born in Vienna, Austria, where he received his basic medical education and, in 1938, his MD degree. Forced to leave by the Nazis, he went first to Bologna, Italy, and then to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he established himself as a bone pathologist. He developed a close associ- ation with Jose Valls and Carlos Ottolenghi, the most noted orthopedic surgeons in Argentina at that time. To support his growing interest and expertise in bone pathology, he created the Latin American Registry of Bone Pathology. As direc- tor of the registry, he amassed more than 30,000 cases, which formed the basis of his classic text- book. He taught at the University of Buenos Aires for nearly 45 years. He then joined the faculty of St. Louis University, as he and his wife wanted to live near their two daughters, who had been edu- cated in St. Louis and had chosen to remain in this country after marriage to United States citizens.
For the last few years of his life, until he died of a sudden heart attack, he taught (and was an active member) in the departments of orthopedic surgery at St. Louis University and at the Rush–Presbyterian–St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago.
He most cherished the honor conferred on him in 1990 by the City of Vienna, the Goldene Ehrenzeichen (Gold Star), which is the most distinguished award given by the city for cul- tural and scientific merit. He was fully aware of the irony of receiving such an honor from a city from which he, for practical purposes, had been expelled decades before.
Fritz was an assiduous worker, a vigorous pro- moter of bone pathology as a specialty, a careful writer, and a warm family man. He had a won- derful sense of humor, a drive to educate, and a remarkable ability to get things done. His text on bone tumors will serve as a lasting memorial to his achievements.
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