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THE DEPARTMENT OF OTOLARYNGOLOGY
THE Department of Otolaryngology originated as a distinct and separate entity in the Medical School in 1904 under the direction and leadership of Roy Bishop Canfield ('97, '99m). At the age of twenty-nine he began his first year of service in the University as Clinical Professor of the Diseases of the Ear, Nose, and Throat, and one year later, in 1905, he was promoted to the rank of Professor of Otolaryngology. Although Dr. Canfield was preceded by such eminent men as Dr. George Edward Frothingham, Professor of Materia Medica and Ophthalmology, 1872-89, and Dr. Flemming Carrow (George Washington '70, M.D. ibid. '74, A.M. hon. Michigan '03), Professor of Ophthalmic and Aural Surgery, Laryngology, and Clinical Ophthalmology, 1889-1904, the functions and activities of these men were varied and pertained more significantly to ophthalmology than to the field of the ears, nose, and throat. Consequently, the appointment in 1904 of Dr. Canfield marked the separation of ophthalmology from otolaryngology and laid the foundation for the subsequent growth and development of otolaryngology in the Medical School.
Animated by a passion for the study of his specialty and familiar with the latest developments and surgical techniques, Dr. Canfield plunged vigorously into his assignment, organized a modern curriculum, and brought early recognition to the Medical School through distinguished achievements in the field of otolaryngological surgery. He was a pioneer of modern otolaryngology in the Middle West. Local anesthesia was successfully attained by his skillful methods, innovations in throat surgery were instituted, and his operations upon the nasal septum and complete procedures upon the nasal accessory sinuses were brilliantly performed. His astute knowledge of diseases of the temporal bone and his amazing dexterity in surgical approaches to this structure soon brought him wide recognition in the field of otology. It may be said of Dr. Canfield that he was the founder and one of the chief builders of modern otolaryngology in Michigan from the point of view of pedagogy and practice.
During his first five years at the University Dr. Canfield made important additions to his surgical armamentarium in spite of inadequate facilities. He established his operating room in the basement of the surgical wing of the old hospital, built in 1889-91, beneath the stairway leading to the main surgical amphitheater, and began to practice the procedures which he had learned through a rich experience in the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston and in clinics abroad. It has often been said that the operating room space allotted Dr. Canfield barely admitted the patient, the doctor, and the anesthetist, thus making it necessary for the surgical nurse to take her position in the corridor and hand instruments to Dr. Canfield through the open door. But it was under such conditions, with poor facilities and meager equipment, that the young otolaryngologist achieved an international reputation through some of the most noteworthy surgical successes of his life. When one considers what Dr. Canfield accomplished in those early years, admiration for his courage and invention is exceeded only by the widespread acknowledgment of the tremendous influence he exerted in the field of otolaryngology and in the progress of medicine.