Excerpt from The Annual Address Before the Philadelphia County Medical Society, by Washington L. Atlee, M. D., Retiring President: Delivered February 1, 1875

Several years ago, 1859, 1860, and 1861, as may be remembered by the members of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, I had the honor of giving a series of lectures on the diagnosis of ovarian tumors in this hall and before this Association. At that period of the history of ovariotomy it might have been considered injudicious for the County Medical Society to aliow such a subject to he presented, although both the subject and its author were then beginning to emerge from the professional odium which had for years been resting upon them. The countenance, however, of this Association was a marked era to me, inasmuch as the spirit in which these lec tures were received Was an assurance that the prejudice against ovariotomy was about to subside, _and that the profession was willing to discuss it on its own merits. This certainly was a great point gained. It was all that its advocates asked. Although with a deep sense of professional and moral obliga tion I carried on these operations in the midst of the most strenuous opposition, yet this forbearance of the Society. Was the first substantial encouragement offered me in this city to pur sue the subject, outside of my own consciousness of right and duty. For this opportunity I have always felt grateful to this Association.

In this connection it will not be improper to call your atten tion to the fact that I have presented to the profession a work on The General and Differential Diagnosis of Ovarian Tumors, which is solely based upon my own experience. Whether or not this book has any merit, its publication may be said to have originated with this Society, as the very lectures above alluded to, with slight alterations, constitute the first part ofthis volume. For that reason it was my original intention to have dedicated it to the County Medical Society. But on looking back of this turning point in the history of ovariotomy to the year 1809, when the great Kentucky surgeon instituted this grand operation, the first claim seemed properly to belong to the memory of Ephraim mcdowell; and the next to my brother, Doctor Jno. L. Atlee, of Lancaster, who since 1843 has been my fellow-laborer in endeavoring to establish this tri umph of American surgery. Hence my book was inscribed to these gentlemen, although it claims its birthright in this Asso ciation.

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