John Benjamin Murphy

John Benjamin Murphy (1857 to 1916) was an American physician and abdominal surgeon who argued for early surgical intervention in appendicitis. Several eponyms carry his name, among them Murphy's button, the Murphy drip, Murphy's punch, Murphy's test and the Murphy-Lane bone skid, and he is best remembered for the clinical sign used to evaluate acute cholecystitis. His career crossed general surgery, orthopedics, neurosurgery and cardiothoracic surgery, which brought him international standing. He performed operations such as appendectomy, cholecystostomy, bowel resection and mastectomy, and described techniques in neurorrhaphy, arthroplasty, bone grafting and thoracoplasty. William James Mayo, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic, called him the surgical genius of our generation.