At 58 years of age, Dupuytre of devel- oped pleurisy and died in a few days, while Cruveilhier, Bouillaud and Broussais were debat- ing whether to drain his empyema. In Dupuytren’s opinion it was “better to die of the disease than of the operation.” On the day of his funeral, colleagues and scholars came from all over the country. His mortal remains were carried to the Père Lachaise cemetery by his students, who would not delegate this last duty to anyone else.
Herbert Alton DURHAM
1884–1946
Dr. Herbert Alton Durham was Surgeon-in-Chief of the Shriners’ Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana, and an outstanding orthopedic surgeon. He spent his boyhood on a farm in Vermont and received the degrees of AB in 1905 and MD in 1909 from the University of Vermont.
After serving a general internship, he became a resident at the New York Orthopedic Hospital. Dr.
Russell H. Hibbs was Chief Surgeon of the Hos- pital at that time, and had just announced his oper- ation for spine fusion. He was impressed by Durham’s ability and, at the completion of his res- idency, sent him abroad on a traveling fellowship.
The greater part of the year was spent in England under Sir Robert Jones, and in Austria and Germany.
With the onset of the First World War in 1914, he returned to New York and became a member of the staff of the New York Orthopedic Hospital.
When the United States entered the war, Durham was at once commissioned in the army and went to England with the first contingent of orthopedic surgeons under the leadership of Dr. Joel E.
Goldthwait. Durham served under Sir Robert in a British military hospital until the end of the war, when he again returned to the New York Ortho- pedic Hospital, this time as an attending surgeon.
In 1923 he was appointed Surgeon-in-Chief of the Shriners’ Hospital at Shreveport, in which capacity he served until his death. He also was attending orthopedic surgeon at the Highland, North Louisiana State, and Tri-State Sanitaria.
He was an exceptionally skillful technician and a capable mechanic. These qualities, combined with a sound surgical judgment, accounted for his
great success and his high reputation. He devised an apparatus for leg lengthening, an operation for correction of internal rotation of the hip in spastic paralysis, and a technique for transplantation of the biceps femoris.
He was a member of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and of the American Medical Association, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of the Clini- cal Orthopedic Society and of the Eastern State Orthopedic Club. He was an out-of-doors man and got his recreation by shooting, riding, and golf.
Dr. Herbert Alton Durham died at Shreveport, Louisiana, on March 13, 1946, at the age of 62.
He was survived by his wife, Beatrice Anderson Durham, to whom he was married in England in 1918, and by two children.
Joseph Gichard DUVERNEY
1648–1730
The son of doctor in a small town near Lyon, Joseph Gichard Duverney was educated in Avignon, and like so many ambitious young Frenchmen, sought his fortune in Paris. Fortu- nately for him, he carried a letter of introduction by which he gained entrance into the scientific community in Paris as an anatomist. In 1669, Duverney was appointed professor of anatomy and surgery at the Jardin du Roi, a medical school developed with the support of Louis XIV. He became one of the first academic surgeons, in the modern sense of the term, because he occupied a tenured chair that allowed him to teach, do research, and carry on a surgical practice. Among his students were members of the French court, including the Dauphin. His research included investigations of the anatomy of the ear, of which he provided the first accurate description, and an important theory of hearing. Duverney was a member of the group of savants gathered around Claude Perrault, who dissected and described a large number of species of animals, including many previously unknown until they were sent from North America by French explorers. His clinical work resulted in his book, Maladies des
Os, which was published after his death. Thefirst complete description of osteoporosis and the description of what is called Duverney’s fracture of the pelvis are found in this work.
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Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Among Duverney’s contemporaries was Nicolas Andry. Although we have no evidence of an association, two such prominent members of the Parisian medical scene hardly could have been unacquainted with one another.
fusion by the use of direct electrical current stim- ulators, and fusion of the hip after failed arthro- plasty. He lived to see his technique of anterior spinal correction become accepted throughout the world as one of the methods of treatment of scoliosis.
He undertook several lecture tours overseas and demonstrated his technique of correction of scoliosis at major centers in Mexico, the United States, Canada, South Africa and Israel. Many orthopedic surgeons visiting Australia came to his hospital, the Mater at North Sydney, to learn his technique.
Despite international acclaim, he remained his modest self, untouched by ostentation; he placed no importance on wealth, social status or patron- age. He was most appreciative of the award of the OBE in 1974 and of the L.O. Betts Memorial Medal in 1971 for his original work on scoliosis.
His interests outside medicine were diverse: he read widely and took a special interest in politics.
For several years, he was state president of the Democratic Labor Party.
He was also a deeply religious man, who, together with his family, found understanding, affection and support within the Catholic Church.
During the last months of his illness, he devel- oped an equanimity that gave reassurance and ease to those most dear to him. Allan Dwyer died in Sydney on February 13, 1975, just 9 months after the onset of the illness that caused the tragic end of an inspiring career.
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