John Staige Davis (1872–1946)

Abstract

Understandably, doubt and dispute often surround claims to priority, a situation which is not unknown in the field of plastic surgery. There is good evidence to support my claim that Staige Davis was the first to declare that he was a full-time practising plastic surgeon and to suit his actions to his words. Although articles on his life and work do not make it entirely clear when he limited his surgical endeavours to plastic surgery, his son, Dr. William Bowdoin Davis, told me that it was in 1909 that Staige Davis decided to practise only plastic surgery. Later, when going through family papers, I discovered that Staige Davis, himself, had written a very short summary of his life in which he says: