The International Abstract of Surgery (after 1946, called the International Abstracts of Surgery) was a major monthly supplement to Surgery, Gynecology & Obstetrics (SG&O) from 1913 until SG&O became the Journal of the American College of Surgeons in 1994.
The history of the International Abstract(s) reflects the extraordinary initiative and business sense of Franklin H. Martin, MD, FACS, the early influence of the Society of Clinical Surgery (SCS), the catastrophic world events of the early 20th century, and the emergence of English as a global scientific language.1
Dr. Martin founded SG&O in 1905, retaining financial control, and its rapid success enabled him to put his further ideas into practice. The journal underwrote the first Clinical Congress in 1910, and Dr. Martin acknowledged that it had been inspired by the example of SCS visits to centers in Europe and America. He also was willing to collaborate when the SCS proposed adopting SG&O as its official journal and/or publishing an “American Zentralblatt.”2
Zentralblatt was the German term for a regular collection of scientific abstracts translated, if necessary, into the reader’s own language. At that time, scientific articles were most frequently written in German, English, or French (in that order), and many American surgeons followed the world literature in German using the Zentralblatt für Chirurgie. However, after Dr. Martin reminded the SCS of the “executive work” required to produce such a monthly publication, the SCS lost interest.2
Proceeding on his own, Dr. Martin recognized that an “American Zentralblatt” (published in English) would require German and French collaborators and convinced a committee of the German Surgical Society to establish a new German-language Zentralblatt with which a contractual relationship could be established.
A similar arrangement was made with the French Journal de Chirurgie. Dr. Martin obtained a formal motion by the Clinical Congress to “commend and confirm” these agreements and announced in January 1913 that International Abstract would be provided to SG&O subscribers for the next 3 months at no additional cost.3
International Abstract nearly doubled the size of SG&O, but readers apparently agreed with Dr. Martin’s assessment that it was “one of the most important scientific literary ventures that has been presented in this generation” and were thereafter willing to pay twice as much for a subscription.4 Dr. Martin could now turn his attention and resources to an even more momentous innovation in 1913—the formation of the American College of Surgeons.
German scientific dominance began to fade after the First World War, reflected by the rising proportion of articles in other languages, especially English (see Figure 1).1
The International Abstract continued to grow (see Figure 2) but, after World War II, required more effort due to the volume of literature, increasing specialization, and limited pool of abstractors. “Whereas 25 years ago many surgeons had excellent reading acquaintance with one or more languages besides English,” wrote the International Abstracts editor in 1955. “Today a bilingual surgeon is a rarity and a trilingual one is found only in the older age group.”5
By the end of the 20th century, the prevalence of English and the advent of electronic media had made printed abstract collections obsolete.
