Summary

William Wayne Babcock (1872–1963) was one of the outstanding figures of a founding generation of American surgery. At the age of 31 he was already such a renowned scientist that he was assigned the position of head of department at the Gynecological Hospital and the Surgery Clinic of Temple University in Philadelphia. He remained in that position during his entire professional life and was awarded with all distinctions of his time. The new operating methods in colorectal surgery are one of the most important elements of his work. Babcock's vein exhairesis using an intravasal stripping device was to a certain extent a logical consequence of the theoretical views in phlebology in the early 20th century. Previous experiences with the methods of Keller and Mayo had been unfavorable. In the first paper he had published, Babcock described eleven typical cases which had an effective result. Nevertheless, the technique had only been gaining acceptance hesitatingly in Europe as well as in America. It was not until the nineteen-thirties that it was incorporated into German surgery textbooks. Crossectomy was primarily not part of the original Babcock operation. At the same token this operational step only gained recognition hesitantly. Despite a 100 year-old worldwide experience scientific debates concerning Babcock's stripping method have been sparked again.