American College of Surgeons - Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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American College of Surgeons The Call of the Meeting was read by Franklin H. Martin, Secretary of the Committee. This call, which is herein quoted in part, summarizes the work for which, in the opinion of the commit- tee, the American College should stand: First. It should formulate a minimum standard of require- ments which should be possessed by any authorized graduate in medicine who is allowed to perform, independently, surgical opera- tions in general surgery or any of its specialties. Second. It should consider the desirability of listing the names of those men who desire to practice surgery and who come under the authorized requirements. Third. It should seek the means of legalizing under national, colonial, state, or provincial laws, a distinct degree supplementing the medical degree, which shall be conferred upon physicians possessing the requirements recognized by this law as necessary to be possessed by operating surgeons. Fourth. It should seek cooperation with the medical schools of the continent which have the right to confer the degree of Doc- tor of Medicine under the present recognized standards, and urge these colleges to confer a supplementary degree on those of its grad- uates who have, in addition to their medical course, fulfilled the necessary apprenticeship in surgical hospitals, operative labora- tories, and actual operative surgery. Fifth. It should authorize and popularize the use of this title by men upon whom it is conferred, and its use should especially be urged in all directories of physicians in order that the laity as well as medical men may distinguish between the men who have been authorized to practice surgery and those who have not. The founders organization was completed by the election of a chairman and a secretary, and the authorization of an order of business. The meeting then proceeded to complete the organiza- tion by adopting by-laws, rules and regulations, and electing governors, regents, and officers.

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HISTORICAL THE American College of Surgeons was organized at a meet- ing in Washington on Monday evening, May 5, 1913. Four hundred and fifty prominent surgeons of the con- tinent of North America came together at the invitation of an Organization Committee which had been appointed by the CHnical Congress of Surgeons of North America at its meeting in November, 191 2. This committee consisted of Edward Martin of Philadelphia, Emmet Rixford of San Francisco, John B. Murphy of Chicago, Rudolph Matas of New Orleans, Albert J. Ochsner of Chicago, Charles H. Mayo of Rochester, Minn., Frederic J. Cotton of Boston, George Emerson Brewer of New York, J. M. T. Finney of Baltimore, W. W. Chipman of Montreal, George W. Crile of Cleveland, and Franklin H. Martin of Chicago. The invitations, which resulted in this large gathering of sur- geons in Washington, were extended by the Organization Commit- tee after a carefully prepared campaign in which each large univer- sity city on the continent was visited by a member of the committee who met, in person, a group of selected men brought together by a committee of three in each locality, which committee had been authorized by the Organization Committee to extend an invitation to the surgeons in their locality to meet the representative of the Organization Committee. These five hundred men who were in- vited to the meeting in Washington, four hundred and fift y of whom responded, represented all branches of surgery and surgical specialties. At this meeting in Washington, called for the purpose of effecting an organization, the Committee on Organization presented a definite tentative plan, which plan included a call of the meeting, the presentation of by-laws, the presentation of resolutions, and a plan for the completion of the organization by the election of governing bodies and executive officers. CALL OF THE MEETING The men were called together by Edward Martin, Chairman of the Organization Committee, who called for the reading of the Call of the Meeting.

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THE BY-LAWS 1. Name. The name of the corporation shall be the American College of Surgeons. n. Object. The object of the College shall be to elevate the standard of surgery, to establish a standard of competency and of character for practitioners of surgery, to provide a method of granting fellowships in the organization, and to educate the public and the profession to understand that the practice of surgery calls for special training and that the surgeon elected to fellowship in this College has had such training and is properly qualified to practice surgery. III. The College, i. The College shall consist of all members of the corporation. Such members are to be designated as Fel- lows. The College shall vest the general management of the cor- poration in a Board of Governors. The Board of Governors shall, in turn, vest the details of the management in a board of trustees to be known as the Board of Regents. 2. The College shall hold an annual meeting on the day and at the place selected for the annual meeting of the Board of Governors. rV. Board of Governors, i. The original Board of Gov- ernors shall consist of the surgeons invited by the Organization Committee to serve as founders of the College, who have qualified as Fellows. The members of this first Board of Governors shall also be known as the Founders of the American College of Surgeons. 2. The original Board of Governors shall be divided by lot into three classes to serve one, two, and three years, respectively. At the annual meeting in 1914, and at the annual meeting in each year thereafter, the Fellows of the College shall elect (in a manner to be determined by the Board of Regents) fifty surgeons from among the Fellows of the College to membership on the Board of Governors, each to serve for a term of three years; thirty of these members are to be elected from a list of nominations, consisting of three members each nominated by the following sixteen surgical associa-