Who’s Who in Orthopedics became its head five years later. It was during this period that his close association with Robert William Smith stimulated his interest in fractures and diseases of bone. After Smith’s death in 1873, Bennett succeeded his old chief as Professor of at Trinity College. He had a successful surgical practice that included the treatment of many patients with diseases and injuries of the bones. He performed osteotomies of the femur for ricketic deformities using Lister’s antiseptic technique, which he introduced into Dublin. He was known as a great teacher and diagnos- tician and was active in the medical of his community. Bennett’s first comment on fractures of the base of the first metacarpal was contained in a report to the Dublin Pathological Society in 1882.1 He published two additional papers on the subject.2,3 At a meeting of the surgical section of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland in May 1897, at which anatomic specimens, photo- Marie Francois Xavier BICHAT graphs and casts of hands, and roentgenograms 1771–1802 were demonstrated, it was proposed by Sir William Stokes that the fracture–dislocation of Marie Francois Xavier Bichat of , a practic- the base of the first metacarpal described by ing surgeon, contributed far more in his career Bennett should bear his eponym.4 than has generally been recognized outside of There are three Irish surgeons whose names France and its medical facilities. With his impor- have been attached to fractures: Colles, Smith, tant book, Traité des Membranes en Général et and Bennett. Their spanned the nineteenth de Diverses Membranes en Particulier, published century and were curiously related; Smith per- in Paris by Richard, Caille and Ravier in 1800, he formed the autopsy on Colles, and Bennett suc- established the science of and ceeded Smith as Professor of Surgery at Trinity in Western Europe. Not until half a College, Dublin. These three surgeons shared a century later was this supplemented by books on common interest in and both Smith and cellular pathology by Goodsir and Virchow. The Bennett used the vast anatomic resources of the chapter on the synovial membranes is a classic in Dublin medical schools to provide the specimens the fundamentals of orthopedic surgery. It is a that they used in their teaching. As cadavers were long chapter describing the anatomy of the dissected, bones showing evidence of old frac- synovial membrane in each joint. tures or disease were set aside and stored. It was had used the term synovia applied from the examination of such collections that to the fluid, and later Clopton Havers described Bennett described the fracture that bears his what he termed synovial glands, i.e. the fatty villi eponym. that he interpreted to be glands producing the fluid. Bichat rejected Havers’ idea of glands, and recognized their function as fat pads separate References from a specific synovial membrane. He believed synovia also covered the articulations and this 1. Bennett EH (1882) Fractures of the metacarpal belief was still somewhat in vogue as late as the bone. Dublin J Med Sci 73:72 1930s. In this chapter, translated by J.B. Coffin, 2. Bennett EH (1885) Injuries of the skeleton: Value of and published in Boston in 1813, Bichat the accumulation of specimens. Br Med J 2:199 employed the term exhale with an archaic 3. Bennett EH (1886) On fracture of the metacarpal bone of the thumb. Br Med J 2:12 meaning: “forcing through a membranous 4. Report of a Meeting of the Royal Academy of surface.” This interpretation is still found in Medicine in Ireland (1897) Section of Surgery, 14 Webster’s unabridged dictionary, and referred to May 1897. Br Med J 1:1481 as old medical terminology.

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