The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-06-10
FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 1882
A Notable Surgeon

The death of Dr. William W. Keen in Philadelphia this week removed probably the oldest practitioner and surgeon from the ranks of the medical profession Dr. Keen was 95 years old at his death. He was ex- ceedingly well known wherever surgery or medicine were discussed. He had lived through so many phases of that profession that he was well qualified to speak on the progress 1t had made in the seventy years that he was a doctor. He did this latter very well, too as forty of those seventy years he spent in teaching His entire career found him constantly engaged in writing about the field in which he always remained so interested.
 When Dr. Keen became a doctor and embarked on the perilous duties of d suf- geon thete were none of the modern con- veniences which enables the man of science to perform such wonders today. Operations were few and far between. Why wouldn't they be when the patients were fully con- scious of the explorations that were going on ], in regions that were as foreign to them as to the next man. Brute force was often re- quired to restrain the agonized writhlngs of Z the sufferer. The surgeon of those days had to work with far greater speed than modern anaesthetics demand
 There was one chapter of Dr keen's life that his death recalled so vividly. It oc- cured as long ago as 1893, yet 1t remained "a secret until 1917 when Dr Keen. the last living holder of the secret, revealed it in publication. It was secret operation that was performed upon the late Grover Cleve- land when he was president. The president was found suffering from a sarcoma of the mouth which IS malignant growth. It was agreed that to announce publicly this affliction of the president would be to add eo1ls to an already fiereely burning fire The panic of 1893 was flourishing. There was only ane course of action - immediate. secret operation.
 { On June 30 President Cleveland left Washington apparently for his summer home lon the Connecticut shore. At New York he boarded a private yacht. On this boat six doctors, including Dr Keen, performed the operation They removed the presidents left upper jaw from the first bieuspid to the last molar and also a small portion of the soft palate. When the boat arrived at the summer home Mir Cleveland was assisted ashore and remained there for several weeks. { His recovery was complete and his voice was in no way injured. Since the operation was within the mouth there was no scar appar- ent. And until 1917 when Dr Keen re- vealed this wierd tale, which we presume cant be questioned at this late date. it re- .rnained close secret.
 Once interviewed Dr Keen declared that the greatest advance in his profession that he had witnessed was the discovery of anes- thesia He ranked baeteriology next to that, and followed them with experimental re- search, and the x-ray. Here IS a character fit for biographical survey We hope that some writer qualified to deal with the pro- fcssion of medicine will undertake the task in the not too distant future A full life was his and certainly one we'll spent. He con- trbuted much to his profession and always remained credit to it.