American Medical Writers Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges. He was elected a member of the American Orthope- dic Association and was particularly proud of his election as president of the Alumni Association of the Hospital for Special Surgery.
He was excluded from military service during World War II when his physical examination revealed hypertension unresponsive to treatment.
He suffered a stroke in 1954 and was seriously disabled for a number of months. He made a good comeback and was able to resume operating in 1956. He carried on with all activities until 1965 when he suffered another stroke. This time he was completely disabled and he never recovered.
It is easy to write about a man’s professional achievements, but much harder to present a picture of the man himself. John was a real char- acter and he took positions for or against a lot of things. When he was against, he was an unrelent- ing foe. He hated pretense and was very critical of persons who were pushing methods of treat- ment that were unsound or had not been properly tested. He would riddle such claims with devas- tating criticism. He was a good companion and full of stories, which he loved to relate. He loved the sea and ships, which symbolized to him the primitive things that had served in man’s evolu- tion. In the same way he loved carpenter’s tools and surgical instruments, of which he had great knowledge and mastery.
He married Louise Tower, of New Haven, in 1926, and they had two sons and a daughter. He took great pride in his family and most of his hap- piness revolved around them. His family owned an island in Belgrade Lake, Maine, where the different members built individual camps and thronged in the summer. Some of John’s happiest times were spent there with his family. Later he bought a forested place in Cornwall on the Hudson, to which he transferred and continued his activities previously done in Maine. He was very saving and thrifty and could never bear to throw away anything. When it became necessary for the hospital to clear away from its files an accumulation of x-ray films, including those from the scoliosis clinic, he sorted out his own films and transferred them to one of his buildings at Cornwall. It is a cause for regret that he was never able to study those films as he had hoped.
The death on March 24, 1967, of John R. Cobb, after an illness of several years, brought to an early end the career of a great orthopedic surgeon and one who had made important contributions to
the study and treatment of scoliosis or curvature of the spine.
67
Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Alessandro CODIVILLA
1861–1912
Alessandro Codivilla was born and raised in Bologna, the son of a pawn broker. He was forced to tutor other students to finance his education. On graduation from the medical school in Bologna, he began his training in surgery, moving from appointment to appointment. In 1899, at the age of 38 years, he gave up the practice of general surgery for the specialty of orthopedics and was appointed director of the Rizzoli Institute of Bologna. As might be expected, this appointment met with serious opposition, which Codivilla overcame by demonstrating his remarkable ability. Two years later, Codivilla was given the additional post of director of the Institute for Ricketts in Milan.
The next 12 years were filled with activity.
During this time, Codivilla made important con- tributions to the treatment of patients suffering from residuals of poliomyelitis by improving methods of tendon transplantation. He also con- cerned himself with the problems of cerebral palsy, congenital dislocations of the hip, club feet, and scoliosis. In each area, he made significant improvements. It was Codivilla who was respon- sible for making the Rizzoli Institute world famous. Codivilla was a quiet man, not given to self-promotion. His students Vittorio Putti, Carlos
E. Ottolenghi, and Francesco Delitala spread his fame throughout the orthopedic world. Codivilla died in 1912 of chronic gastrointestinal disease, which had plagued him for many years.
In 1902, Codivilla introduced a method of skeletal traction, which he used primarily in the treatment of old deformities of the leg. This involved him in a bitter controversy over priority with Steinmann, whose method of skeletal trac- tion was used primarily in the treatment of fresh fractures.
was a true product of his heritage. He obtained his preliminary education in the private schools of the Boston area and entered Harvard Medical School in 1891. His third year of medical education was spent abroad, and he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1895. While traveling abroad he visited many clinics in the outstanding medical centers of the day—London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Cairo and others. While in Vienna he became aware, for the first time, of the sub- deltoid bursa mentioned in a little book by Dr. E.
Albert. This small bursa was to become the theme of his life’s work; and from this theme many side excursions were destined to be taken. Although in subsequent years many other interests took of his time and stamina, nevertheless he pursued the study of the subdeltoid bursa and its environs throughout his entire life, the culmination being a book entitled The Shoulder, which was published in 1934.
Very early in his career he challenged many frontiers in medicine. He pursued these studies with great tenacity; he made and recorded many original observations and became an authority in the new fields. In all his undertakings he worked to capacity; he left no stone unturned, he went deeply into the subject. These traits were first exhibited in 1895 when he was appointed assis- tant in anatomy at the Harvard Medical School.
For the next several years he studied in minute detail the subdeltoid bursa and its pathology in the dissecting room and on postmortem specimens.
This study made him aware of the clinical signi- ficance of this region of the shoulder joint. He applied this knowledge in the outpatient clinics of the Massachusetts General Hospital, when he was appointed surgeon to outpatients in 1899. In 1904 his first paper appeared on this subject. At this time he was to learn that he was not the first to write on subdeltoid bursitis; during the discussion of his paper it was brought to light that Kuster described the bursa in 1902, calling it the sub- acromial bursa, which name Codman adopted promptly because he considered this designation to be more appropriate than subdeltoid bursa.
In spite of his extensive knowledge and famil- iarity with the shoulder region, very few of his colleagues were impressed by his work, so that early in his career he learned that too frequently one is not recognized by one’s own generation.
Although discouraged and frustrated, he main- tained his interest in the shoulder and continued to make new observations and contributions to the field.
68 Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Ernest Amory CODMAN
1869–1940
In every generation there are a few outstanding personalities whose luster increases with the years. Such a one was Ernest Amory Codman. His life story is typical of that of many great men whose far-reaching intellectual powers and con- tributions are not recognized and appreciated in their own time; in fact, their efforts may even meet with scorn and ridicule. Often such reaction produces discontent, loss of faith in mankind, frustration and even social and economic hard- ships for these gallant pioneers. As I study the life of Codman, I am awed, stimulated and humbled by his brilliant mind, his integrity, his tenacity of purpose, his keen, original observations, his gal- lantry and his egotism tempered with humility.
Every student of medicine should study his story.
Born in Boston on December 30, 1869, Codman was of pure English Puritan stock. He
