GEORGE RYERSON FOWLER, M.D.

[ 1848* 19061

The American Journal of Surgeery N.S.Vol.VI.Mav.l919

[From Young: AnnaIs of the Barber Surgeons. London, 1890.1

THE FOWLER POSITION

G EORGE RYERSON FOWLER was born in New York City, December, 25, 1848. He died February 6, Igo

foIIowing an operation for appendicitis. He graduated with the degree of M.D.

from the BeIIevue HospitaI MedicaI CoIIege in 1871.

He practiced in BrookIyn, engaging in genera1 practice for 15 years, after which time he did surgery excIusiveIy, having one of the Iargest practices in this fieId on the American continent.

His scientific connections were numer- ous. Dr. FowIer during his career was Visiting Surgeon to the Bushwick HospitaI (six years Iater ConsuIting Surgeon), St. Mary’s HospitaI, Methodist EpiscopaI HospitaI, German HospitaI, Surgeon-in- Chief to the BrookIyn HospitaI, ConsuIting Surgeon to the ReIief HospitaI of the Eastern District, the Norwegian HospitaI and St. Mary’s ImmacuIate HospitaI of Jamaica, N. Y. For five and a haIf years he was Professor of Surgery of the New York PoIycIinic MedicaI SchooI. He then became Professor Emeritus of Surgery at that institution.

Among Dr. FowIer’s society affIIiations were: FeIIow and Treasurer, American SurgicaI Association, Vice-President, New York Academy of Medicine, New York SurgicaI Society, BrookIyn SurgicaI Society, BrookIyn PathoIogicaI Society, MedicaI Society County of Kings (Presi- dent and at the time of his death, Chair- man of the Board of Trustees), Membre de Ia Soci&tti: InternationaIe de Chirurgie,

and Honorary Member of the NationaI Association of RaiIway Surgeons.

He was appointed Examiner in Surgery to the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York.

He ran the gamut of the NationaI Guard of New York State from regimenta assist- ant surgeon to surgeon generaI. He served in Cuba throughout the Spanish-American War, being commissioned by President McKinIey as Chief Surgeon of Division, United States VoIunteers, with the rank of Major.

In 1897 he was a deIegate to the Inter- nationa MedicaI Congress which convened in Moscow, Russia, and again to one in Paris in 1900.

In 1890 the Red Cross Society of BrookIyn was organized and Dr. FowIer was eIected president.

He was a voIuminous writer on surgica1 subjects. For severa years he was Associ- ate Editor of the Annals of the Anatomical and Surgical Society, afterwards the Annals of Surgery. He wrote a treatise on Appendicitis in 1894 which was revised and enIarged in Igoo and transIated into German and published in BerIin in 1896. At the time of his death Dr. FowIer had fmished two voIumes on General Surgery.

His name wiI1 Iong be associated with genera1 surgery, especiaIIy with thoracic surgery and in abdominal surgery with appendicitis, and with the position, worked out with his son, Dr. RusseII S. FowIer of BrookIyn, in the treatment of genera1 peritonitis, internationaIIy known as the “ FowIer position.” T. S. W.

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