Nicholas Senn was a Swiss-born American surgeon, instructor, and founder of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States.
12 Facts About Nicholas Senn
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Nicholas Senn was involved in experimental research, particularly of acute pancreatitis, plastic surgery, head and neck oncology, the intestinal tract, and the treatment of leukaemia with x-rays.
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Nicholas Senn graduated from the Chicago Medical College in 1868.
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Nicholas Senn spent the first few years after graduating as practitioner and resident physician at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, later becoming attending physician in a Milwaukee hospital.
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Around 1886, Nicholas Senn successfully tested the diagnosis of gastrointestinal perforation by inflation with hydrogen gas.
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Nicholas Senn used a rubber balloon connected to a rubber tube inserted in his anus to pump 6 liters of hydrogen gas into his intestinal tract.
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Nicholas Senn had previously carried out this experiment on dogs to the point of rupturing the intestine.
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Nicholas Senn published 25 books as well as numerous papers and essays during his career, including the 1886 paper Surgery of the pancreas as based upon experiments and clinical research, and the books Four Months Among the Surgeons of Europe and the Nurse's Guide for the Operating Room.
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Nicholas Senn purchased the 7,000 volume collection of old and rare medical books left by a prominent doctor in Germany and donated the materials to the Newberry Library.
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Nicholas Senn is the namesake for Nicholas Senn High School in Chicago, which was named for him on March 20,1909 following his death.
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Nicholas Senn is known for saying "The fate of the wounded rests with the one who applies the first dressing" in 1897.
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Nicholas Senn authored a book, Around the World via India - a medical tour, published by American Medical Association Press, Chicago, in 1905.