Medicine: New President for A. M. A.

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Last week the American Medical Association, meeting in Manhattan, put on a big show (see below). It also elected a new president (term: one year). Surgeon Frank Howard Lahey, "the Mayo of Boston," is famed for his scientific achievements. In 1922, Dr. Lahey started a small clinic on Commonwealth Avenue, with Drs. Lincoln Fleetford Sise and Sara Murray Jordan, outstanding woman gastroenterologist (specialist in intestinal disorders) in the U. S. Dr. Lahey specialized in clipping thyroids. So dexterous was his technique that within 17 years he and his associates had performed over 15,000 operations, lost only 100 patients.

Today the Lahey Clinic occupies a large, four-story brick building, is staffed by 56 doctors, who perform some 7,500 operations a year in all fields except obstetrics and ophthalmology. An excellent general surgeon, Dr. Lahey has colored movies taken of his operations, shows them at medical meetings all over the U. S.

At 40, boyish-looking Dr. Lahey still had trouble convincing his patients that he was old enough to operate. Last week, still bursting with youthful energy, he celebrated his 60th birthday. At a party he was given a surprise ceremonial Birthday Volume of scientific articles by 59 of his colleagues, including such noted men as Drs. Walter Clement Alvarez of the Mayo Clinic, Andrew Conway Ivy of Northwestern, George Washington Crile of Cleveland. While his guests lit their cigars and settled back in their chairs, the doors to the dining hall opened wide and in trooped 50 of Dr. Lahey's friends, bearing a mammoth birthday cake, lavishly decorated with sugar paintings of Dr. & Mrs. Lahey playing golf, Dr. Lahey performing an operation, Dr. Lahey's pedigreed pointers and setters (he is an ardent hunter), an assortment of trains and airships to symbolize his wide travels.

Dr. Lahey did not have the heart to operate on this intact marvel. He had it carted away and photographed.