Jacob Da Silva Solis-Cohen: America's first head and neck surgeon
✍ Scribed by Steven M. Zeitels
- Book ID
- 101245103
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 361 KB
- Volume
- 19
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1043-3074
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Jacob Da Silva Solis-Cohen (Figure 1), an eminent physician and surgeon of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, embodied the most outstanding qualities of a specialist in medicine and surgery. His development and career chronicles the origin and growth of laryngology as well as head and neck surgery, and serves as a currentday model for those who aspire to excellence in our specialty. Solis-Cohen was unique among the founding fathers of laryngology because he was a general surgeon initially and, without formal training, he taught himself the art of laryngoscopy. These circumstances enabled him to develop a uniquely creative perspective about diseases and illnesses of the upper aerodigestive tract, one that was unequaled among his contemporaries. Determination of the viability of laryngology as a surgical discipline, and the study of throat diseases as a science, rested on the shoulders of Jacob Da Silva Solis-Cohen 1 and Morell Mackenzie. 2 Independently, one in Europe and the other in America, they demonstrated that management of the air and food passages required synergistically skilled medical, endoscopic, and opensurgical intervention. This concept was the integrating theme of Chevalier Jackson's encyclo-