SA has its roots in the Long Island Society of Anesthetists, founded in 1905 in Brooklyn, New York. A. Frederick Erdmann, M.D., a hospital anesthetist and instructor in anesthesia at Long Island College Hospital, convened the first meeting on October 6 of that year to coincide with Ether Day. Dr. Erdmann invited a group of physician-anesthetists to meet because, as he put it, “there are a few physicians practicing anesthesia in the area, these men ought to get together and form a society.”¹ These events coincided with an increase in specialization in medicine and a concurrent establishment of specialty societies. When the Long Island Society of Anesthetists was established, there was only one specialty society in anesthesiology in existence: the London Society of Anesthetists, founded in 1893.

Alexander J.C. Skene, M.D.

It is not surprising that these events took place in Brooklyn and at the Long Island College Hospital (LICH). LICH had been established in 1860 as a combination of a hospital and a medical school. It also was the first institution to combine clinical and classroom teaching for medical students. Brooklyn had only recently become part of New York City and was the third largest city in the country at the time it merged. It was an important industrial area which contributed to the success of a busy hospital with busy operating rooms. The Medical Society of the County of Kings had been founded in 1822, and there were other specialty societies such as the Brooklyn Gynecological Society, the fifth oldest specialty society in obstetrics and gynecology in the United States. One of the most prominent graduates of LICH in the 19th century was Alexander J.C. Skene, M.D., an 1863 graduate and Scottish immigrant for whom the glands in the female genitalia are named. Dr. Skene served on the faculty at LICH for his entire career, except for service in the Civil War.² He was a mentor to Dr. Erdmann and was President of LICH when the Polhemus Building (classrooms and a dispensary) was dedicated not long before his death in 1900. It was in the Polhemus Building, which still houses the offices of the departments of anesthesia and surgery at LICH, that the Long Island Society of Anesthetists held its first meeting. The original founders group of the Society included Dr. Erdmann and eight of his medical colleagues.

The Society existed as a local group until May 31, 1911, when the last meeting was held. The meeting was called to order by the President Erdmann. As a last act of the Society, he gave a brief history from the inception until it “was swallowed up by the group of men in New York City.” He feared that the Society would lose its identity with its broadened scope and change of name. He admitted, though, that they had gone so far that they must go further to accomplish what they had been intending to do. “I am overwhelmed,” he concluded, “by the recognition of the changes which will take place, and by the fact of the necessity for making those changes.”¹ Thereafter the name of the Society was officially changed to the New York Society of Anesthetists.

A. Frederick Erdmann, M.D.

Dr. Erdmann not only founded the Long Island Society, but he would remain active in the New York Society. He served at various times as secretary, librarian, historian and politician. He was a meticulous recorder as secretary and always a man of influence in the Society. He collected the papers and minutes of the Long Island and New York societies as well as the successor organization, the American Society of Anesthetists, from 1905-36. Erdmann also served as Librarian, an elected office established in 1912, and attempts were made to establish a library. His “contribution of a full show case of anesthesia equipment and two shelves of books and reprints were a substantial factor in the development of the present Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.”³ As historian he stated, as the Society evolved into the American Society of Anesthetists, “A few men are still living who gave anesthetics in the late years of the 19th century. To bring both the living, our Silver Greys, and the dead who were the pioneers into the ken of the ever-increasing host which the American Society of Anesthetists has become my task … and will any one who knows about the days of the ’90s or earlier cooperate in writing this history for the boys who will follow us?” The Historian’s Report in 1936 also pointed out the pressing need for an official organ of the Society — support for what was to become Anesthesiology.

The Long Island College Hospital, 1899.

Dr. Erdmann also was involved in the “politics” of anesthesia during his years with the various societies. The final objective of the founders group was to have the medical anesthetists equal the internist, surgeon and obstetrician. In 1915 the New York Society of Anesthetists worked toward amending the Public Health Law of the State of New York “to define the administration of a general anesthetic as the practice of medicine.” In 1924 the Society applied to recognize medical anesthetists in the listing of medical fees, and in 1934, another bill was introduced in the New York State Legislature to limit the administration of anesthesia to physician anesthetists.¹

Dedication fresco, which appears on the Polhemus Memorial Clinic.

Dr. Erdmann published as well. His publications include “How Music Heals the Sick” in the Popular Science Monthly in October 1937; “It Has Charms: Therapeutic Music Drives Away and Prevents Dental Pain” in Literary Digest in May 1937; and “Music Aids the Anesthetist” in The Scientific American in August 1933. He also received several honors, including the Distinguished Service Award in 1948 and served as Long Island Society President in 1911.

Dispensary entrance to Polhemus Memorial Clinic.

Secretary’s Office in the Polhemus Memorial Clinic.

Polhemus Memorial Clinic Library.

On February 13, 1936, a meeting was held “to make this Society, in name, as well as in fact, a national society in anesthesia.” Nothing would be changed in the Society except to replace the word “American” for “New York” throughout the Constitution. In 1945 the Society would finally become the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc., as we know it today.

This article is dedicated to the memory of Joseph P. Giffin, M.D., friend, colleague and mentor. We will miss his wisdom and insight.

References:
1. Betcher AM, Ciliberti BJ, Wood PM, Wright LH. The jubilee year of organized anesthesia. Anesthesiology. 1956; 17:226-263.
2. Powderly K. Unpublished dissertation, 1998.
3. Bul NY State Soc Anesth. 1953; 5(7):3.

Joseph P. Giffin, M.D., served as Chair of Anesthesiology, Long Island College Hospital and Executive Vice-Chair of Anesthesiology, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York.

Kathleen E. Powderly, Ph.D., is Acting Director, Division of Humanities in Medicine, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York.

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