Schachner on “country doctors” as pioneers of ovariotomy

“It is singular and well worthy of emphasis that, although the idea of extirpation as the only cure for ovarian tumors was suggested and discussed in various countries for a century, it remained for a relatively obscure country doctor in the backwoods of a young and newly developed country to put the idea into execution. And strange to say, what occurred in America was repeated in England, Germany, France, and Italy, namely, it was some obscure, or relatively obscure, practitioner in these countries who was the first to adopt the idea and successfully carry out the procedure. The surgeons of note in these countries, practically to a man, either ignored or actively condemned the step” (Schachner, 178; also 191, 201``).