The shoulder : rupture of the supraspinatus tendon and other lesions in or about the subacromial bursa / E.A. Codman.

Ernest Amory Codman

Date:: 1934

Credit: The shoulder : rupture of the supraspinatus tendon and other lesions in or about the subacromial bursa / E.A. Codman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$Em. 0(; i' k “Vr CT';tiHn discvcre‘- ..“If. It is human nature ,» to he relic,1 upon in Ins ease, for I,is Ego usually impels him , I1!' 01 allle‘ ll|c pathfinders usually thrust the duty of a,Iver ising discoveries on themselves, for sometimes their own ilm , 1 'u ■ I,'cn 'credulity and opposition whet the ambition some natures, and the self-imposed duty becomes a.. form 1 ego„s„c assertion. We enjoy the struggle to be believed. Such may be my own case. If I could frankly and impersonally analyze my own feelines • cVof tl •OIK TT^; bnnging the lesion wI»ich is the main sub- .] ct of this book to the knowledge of every general practitioner I m.g d throw a helpful light on the problem stated on the first paVe of this epilogue. J ° As a preliminary statement, I assert that I certainly should not lU SPCnt b'C -years on thls ,)<,<)k merely for the philanthropic pur¬ pose ot instructing the medical profession. It would not have been °r h ^”IC’ m( llot feIt imPell«I to use the subject to illustrate the End Result Idea, in order to point to the fact that any hospital vhich will follow up its cases of shoulder injury, will find instances of this lesion and be able to recognize and to relieve them, and that this would only be one instance among many. As a product of such analyses both the discovery and the discoverer would be automatically and effectively advertised. 1 'aig'ld have written this book twenty years ago, in a more active s age of life. I admit that while engaged with the far more inter- r,‘g i!n,< experience °f earning a Iiving as a general surgeon, feaied that it I wrote a book on this subject, mv friends (competi¬ tors) would specialize me. It is far more interesting when you o-,f Up 111 the ninrmmi' f,» vnnllr.n 4-1...j. a. . J __ the morning to realize that today you may remove a . i, ,, ~.j lemiMe a gall bladder, a stomach or a colon, or do a circumcision in a millionaire’s fami y, than if is to know that you will painstakingly do a fussy little shoulder operation just like one which you had done the day before, and the day before that, and the day before that. It is worse still to' realize that meantime your reputation as a general surgeon is dimin- Is an<1 t,le lnil.j°r surgical cases of absorbing interest are falling to \our less studious colleagues c> To some extent my friends have thus specialized me, but I have postponed my decline by shirking writing a book on this subject. T!us 1 ,)llt not with pride, for I regard my behavior as narrow¬ minded and due to silly human weakness. There is always a mental wrestle between the general and the particular. \o ambitious man$