conservative governments. It was during his student days that Pirogoff developed a progres- sive point of view. The standard of medical edu- cation at the University of Moscow at that time was very poor. After graduation, he was selected for further training at the University of Dorpat in Estonia, where the teachers were mostly German.
He stayed there for 5 years and during these years he studied anatomy and experimental surgery. He then had the opportunity to study for 2 additional years in Berlin and Gottingen.
Upon his return to Russia in 1835, Pirogoff hoped for an appointment as professor of surgery at the University of Moscows but was forced to accept a similar but less prestigious position at Dorpat. He stayed in this position for 5 years, with only a leave of 5 months for study in Paris in the clinic of Velpeau. In 1840, he became professor of surgery at the Medico-Chirurgical Academy in St. Petersburg. During the next few years, he established a reputation as the leading surgeon in the community as well as an outstanding teacher.
With a mind always open to new ideas, he was one of the earliest European surgeons to adopt the use of ether anesthesia. In 1847, he described the administration of ether per rectum to produce anesthesia.
During the war in the Crimea, Pirogoff was made the Surgeon General in charge of the medical establishment in Sevastopol. With the help of the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, he was able to introduce female nurses into the military hospitals at the same time Florence Nightingale was doing so in the British military hospitals. The collaboration of Pirogoff and the Grand Duchess laid the groundwork for the estab- lishment of the Russian Red Cross. Pirogoff was the first surgeon to use plaster of Paris dressings for the treatment of fractures in war casualties. On the basis of his experience, he believed that open fractures should be immobilized in plaster of Paris dressings as quickly as possible and before evacuation to the field hospitals. The results of his work in the Crimea were incorporated in his book, Principles of General Military Field Surgery.
The period immediately after the Crimean war was one of frantic activity. During this period, Pirogoff published the description of his osteoplastic amputation (1854), a three-volume book on clinical surgery (1851–1854), and his important atlas of cross-sectional anatomy (1852–1859). This latter work, based on sections taken through frozen cadavers, was introduced as a teaching tool. It opened a new approach to the
visualization of anatomic relationships and was widely adopted. Cross-sectional anatomy participated in the general decline of interest in gross anatomy on medical school curricula, but the introduction of computed tomography and nuclear magnetic resonance scans has revived interest in this aspect of gross anatomy.
In 1856, tired of the political battles and intrigues of the medical school, Pirogoff resigned his position and became the inspector of educa- tion of southern Russia. In this role, he traveled extensively and made a valiant effort to improve the educational system under his direction. Retir- ing 5 years later, he spent the next 5 years living in Berlin and Heidelberg. Upon returning to Russia, his liberal, western views were out of step with the trend toward conservatism following the assassination of Alexander II, and he retired. He died of a cancer of the mouth.
270 Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Sir Harry PLATT
1886–1986
Harry Platt, the eldest son of Ernest Platt, a master velvet cutter, and of Jessie Cameron Platt (née Lindsey), was born at Thornham, Lancashire, on October 7, 1886. His father later became chair- man of United Velvet Cutters, Ltd, and both parents lived to be nonagenarians. Harry’s life was dominated by the development of a tubercu- lous knee joint at the age of 5, though the diag- nosis was somewhat delayed. As a result of this,
he was frequently confined to bed and his early education, which was notably catholic, was undertaken privately at home. He read widely and became quite fluent in French and German, as well as a highly proficient musician and pianist.
The knee trouble precluded any active participa- tion in sport, though his three younger brothers excelled in athletics. Despite the knee problem, he had a very happy childhood; but it is signifi- cant that, in later life, he remarked that his parents found it far harder to come to terms with his phys- ical handicap than he himself did. Fortunately he was referred to Robert Jones, the internationally renowned orthopedic surgeon, for whom he formed a deep affection and from whom he received some of his later training.
Music became the passion of Harry’s child- hood, and in 1903 he prepared three compositions for the Mendelssohn scholarship, which was won that year by George Dyson (later Sir George), who went on to become a distinguished composer and principal of the Royal College of Music in London. After momentary indecision, and partly influenced by Robert Jones, Harry opted for medicine. On entering the Victoria University of Manchester without previous scientific training, he had great difficulty with physics and chemistry.
He was in the same year as Geoffrey Jefferson, the distinguished neurosurgeon, and they remained lifelong friends. They recall that there were three women student contemporaries who were then kept completely separate in their studies! After an outstanding undergraduate career, he qualified in 1909 from both Victoria and London Universities and secured the gold medal in London. After resident and registrar appointments at Manchester Royal Infirmary with Sir William Thorburn, he demonstrated anatomy in Grafton Elliot Smith’s department at Manches- ter. He later passed the mastership and fellowship examinations, and secured the MD, Manchester, with gold medal, for his thesis on peripheral nerve injuries. His orthopedic training was mainly at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in London, and in Boston, USA, with Elliot Brackett and R.B. Osgood at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Children’s Hospital, while he also observed Harvey Cushing’s neurosurgery at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. In the days before trav- eling scholarships, he depended upon his father’s support and recalled how he had sailed from Liv- erpool to Boston on S.S. Franconia for £15 in a small first-class cabin. While in Boston he read voraciously the orthopedic journals in English,
French and German, and deeply savored the musical and operatic life.
On returning to England in 1914, Harry was appointed surgeon to Ancoats Hospital, Man- chester, where he organized the first special frac- ture department in Great Britain. On the outbreak of the First World War, he became a captain of the Royal Army Medical Corps and was appointed by Sir Robert Jones, the then army consultant in orthopedics, to be surgeon-in-charge of a military orthopedic center in Manchester. It was there that he acquired his considerable experience of nerve injuries and undertook studies in bone grafting.
He showed great organizing ability and later described himself very truthfully as a contempla- tive man, more of a physician, and “not naturally a great craftsman.” He later fostered many other institutions—the Ethel Hadley Hospital, Winder- mere, and the Children’s Hospital at Biddulph Grange, Staffordshire. In 1920, he became con- sultant orthopedic surgeon to Lancashire County Council and surgical director of the Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, and in 1932 orthopedic surgeon to the Manchester Royal Infir- mary, subsequently to become its first professor of orthopedic surgery in 1939. He held all of these posts until his retirement and, with the inception of the NHS, he also served on the board of gov- ernors of the Manchester Royal Infirmary from 1948 to 1963. Between the two world wars, Harry sometimes claimed that he had won the Ashes for England in 1932, having declared one of Harold Larwood’s knees as fit for the notorious “body- line” tour.
During the Second World War, he was consult- ant adviser in orthopedic surgery to the Emer- gency Medical Service and an active member of innumerable government committees and other public bodies after the war. He had been elected to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1940, serving there for 18 years and being vice president 1949–1950 and president 1954–1957.
He had received the accolade of Knight Bachelor in 1948 and, as was then the custom, was awarded a baronetcy on completing the presidency of the College. He also became a member of the Court of Patrons of the College and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Dental Surgery and, quite excep- tionally, continued to serve on one College com- mittee until well into his 80s, when he was also appointed a Knight of the Order of St. John. He received honorary degrees from the universities of Berne, Manchester, Liverpool, Belfast, Leeds and Paris; honorary fellowships of the surgical 271
Who’s Who in Orthopedics
colleges of America, Canada, South Africa, Aus- tralasia and Denmark, and honorary membership of the orthopedic associations and societies of most countries in the western world and of Latin America. He had been a founder member of the British Orthopaedic Association in 1916, its presi- dent in 1934–1935 and ultimately an Honorary Fellow. A founder member of the Société Inter- nationale de Chirurgie Orthopédique et de Trau- matologie in 1929, he was its president from 1948 to 1953; he was also president of the International Federation of Surgical Colleges 1955–1966, and its honorary president from 1970. He had been a founder member of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1919 and was pres- ident of the Royal Society of Medicine from 1931 to 1932. He contributed to nine textbooks on orthopedic surgery and peripheral nerve injuries, and a list of all his publications is recorded in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Harry Platt Birthday Volume, 48-B, No. 4, November 1966.
As a man, Sir Harry displayed formidable energy and drive, both physical and mental, despite the handicap of a much shortened leg sup- ported by an appliance. In early years he had a rather shy nature, married to considerable intel- lectual arrogance, making it difficult for many folk to get to know him well, though friends became more numerous as increasing age brought greater tolerance. Many were greatly amused and enlightened by his astringent—often acidulous—
comments on colleagues and affairs in general.
Privately it was his firm belief that a committee of one was the quickest way to get things done!
But his many great qualities of mind and heart, his organizational ability and his far-seeing philo- sophical outlook more than compensated for any abruptness of manner on first encounter. He married Gertrude Sarah Turney in 1917 and they had one son, who is a barrister, and four daugh- ters. His wife predeceased him in 1980 after 63 years of marriage, though for some time prior to her death she had been under institutional care.
He continued to live alone with an ever lively mind and intellect, and he had a prodigious memory, even as he approached his century.
Shortly before that, he gave a 5-hour interview to a reporter from the British Medical Journal, in which he showed a remarkable recollection of names and past events. His birthday was marked by an orthopedic festschrift attended by surgeons from many countries—not a few of international renown. A dinner was held at Manchester Uni- versity on the evening of Tuesday October 7,
1986, attended by a company of 338, with all of whom he insisted on shaking hands while seated in his wheel-chair. After several speeches and pre- sentations had been made, the hardy old warrior stood up and spoke for 25 minutes in a firm voice and without a note. A month later, in a last visit to his surgical Alma Mater, he was entertained to dinner in the council room by the president and vice presidents, and by four of the five surviving fellow past presidents. When he died a few months later on December 20, 1986, he was sur- vived by his son, who inherited the baronetcy, and by his four daughters.
References
1. The Times 22 December 1986 2. Br Med J 1987, 294:129–130
3. Br Med J 1986, 293:864–866, Sir Harry Platt: 100 not out
272 Who’s Who in Orthopedics
William Ward PLUMMER
1877–1953
Dr. Plummer’s activities in the orthopedic field had spanned the era of almost nonsurgical conservatism to that of the aggressive, brilliant accomplishments of the modern orthopedic surgeon. His ability was recognized by his mem- bership in the leading orthopedic societies in the country and in his executive positions in them. He was a student and a teacher, occupying the
