Dr Wheeler, ladies and gentlemen of the New England Surgical Society (NESS), and guests. The award of the Nobel Prize to Joseph E. Murray, MD, recognizing his performance of the first successful transplants of vascularized human organs represents the first time in the 75-year history of the NESS that a New England surgeon, a fellow of this Society, has received this honor. That a member of our Society has been so recognized lets us all bask a bit in reflected glory.
The Nobel Awards Committee, in its 90-year history (only a little older than the NESS), has awarded career surgeons in active practice for work in their own clinical fields on only four previous occasions. This is the third award to a surgeon working in the United States, the second award to an American surgeon. Our other American surgical Nobel laureate, Charles Huggins, MD, a graduate of the Harvard Medical