Our country, at present, is forging ahead in the rapid evolution of thoracic surgery, which, truly, is the last child of operative surgery. There is now no nook or corner in the body that is not open to the knife, and safely so. That is one of the sources of the great satisfaction we derive from working in thoracic surgery.
To look into the future is not an easy matter. I believe, and I am sure you agree with me, that thoracic surgery will have its evolution in the same way that abdominal surgery has had, only it will have this evolution still faster, because we are standing on the experience we have had in general surgery, particularly in abdominal surgery.
I have been thinking of what Dr. Butler put before us in his usual plain and modest way. The proposition he has made, namely, that thoracic surgery should be