Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1909 — Banquet Man Who Knifed Them. [ARTICLE]

Banquet Man Who Knifed Them.

Monday night one hundred and six'y surgeons, each bearing a scar where the if appendices had been removed, j were hosts to Dr. John B. Deaver, ( chief surgeon of the German hos-, pital in Philadelphia. Dr. Deaver had removed them all himself. He was the only one present with his vermiform attached. All the hosts were physicians and surgeons who had come from every state and from ! Canada. The dinner was given at the university club and marked the be-*! ginning of the Appendixless Club. , Even the waiters were appendix-' less, and they moved decorously about ( garbed in Red Cross orderlies. Dr. Deaver, however, was not alone responsible for their condition. As an evidence of their appreciation, the men operated upon by Dr. Reaver presented him with a loving cup in the form of a manakin of silver with a knife sticking in the abdomen where the incision is made to remove the appendix. In poem, song and story, the survivors made merry over their condition. In the menu were testimonials from some of the greatest surgeons in the land, declaring that after having been operated upon by Dr. Deaver, they felt like new men. These parts of the menus were cut out before the reporters could get them. Skeletons and sections of anatomy that made the board look like a butcher shop composed part of the decorations of the table. It had been intended to haye before every man’s plate his appendix in alcohol in a sealed jar, but they had been presented to the University of Pennsylvania by Dr. Deaver and the university refused to give them up. Following the dinner speeches were made lauding Dr. Deaver. Dr. Neff said: . “Not one oIT us but has not felt his gentle knife. It Is our only regret that among all of us freemen, liberate, chainless men yhose fetters of the appendix have been stricken off by our guests, he only remains a slave to the vermiform. I move that an operation be performed at once upon our benefactor to make him one of us.’’ There was an evident desire among the diners to bring this about, but the resolution finally failed to pass.