Georg C. PERTHES1869–1927

Who’s Who in Orthopedics The American-owned Journal of Bone and

Joint Surgery was the official organ of the British Orthopedic Association, but the British circulation was small and British articles rarely appeared, one long-standing source of dissatis- faction. Authors preferred indigenous journals;

consequently the few communications submitted to the journal from the UK were usually deplorable and rightly rejected. The American sponsors also were unhappy about the journal, largely because its circulation had long been too small to sustain it and so its survival depended upon the great generosity of its sponsors besides the outstanding dedication of its successive editors, Elliot Brackett and William Rogers.

The familiar tale of friendly discussion between representatives of the bodies concerned does not need recapitulation. When there was a chairman he seems always to have been Perkins, and it was he who successfully brought proposals for joint publication to the British Orthopedic Association.

He also chaired the meeting that set up an independent British editorial board to include the editor and other officers besides representatives of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, as well as the United Kingdom. Sir Harry Platt accepted its chairmanship in the initial stages, but then handed over to Perkins, who served till retiring in 1952.

In a number of the journal dedicated to George Perkins at that time, Sir Reginald Watson-Jones wrote: “He inspired the British Volume of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. Without him there would probably never have been a British Volume of this Journal. He thought of it long before it started. In pursuing his thought he over- came every obstacle.”

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Georg C. PERTHES

1869–1927

Georg C. Perthes was born in the Rhineland and

educated in Freiburg, Berlin, and Bonn. When his

chief, Trendelenburg, moved to Leipzig, Perthes

accompanied him. Shortly after, Perthes served in

the expeditionary force sent to China during the

Boxer Rebellion (1900–1901). Upon his return

from China, he was made professor and director

of the Surgical Polyclinic Institute in Leipzig,

serving between the years 1903–1910. In 1911, he

succeeded van Braunns as professor and director

of the Surgical Clinic in Tübingen, where he

finished out his career. He was a busy surgeon and

also wrote on vascular and chest diseases and on

maxillofacial injuries and war surgery. He was

one of the early exponents of the clinical use of

x-rays in Germany. Through his interest in tuber-

culosis, he became aware of those atypical cases

that he separated from tuberculous hip disease

and called arthritis deformans juvenilis, his first

paper on this subject appearing in 1910. In a

second publication he was able to describe accu-

rately the gross and microscopic changes in a hip

obtained at autopsy.