"Rudolph Matas received his medical
education at the University of Louisiana (1876). He had such a long,
distinguished career that his many accomplishments are astounding. Among
his honors were presidencies of the American Surgical Association (1909),
the South Surgical Association (1911), the American Association for Thoracic
Surgery (1920), and the American College of Surgeons (1924). Most of his
professional life was spent on the surgical faculty of Tulane University,
where he held chair of surgery. Although Matas never authored a textbook
of surgery, he did make numerous contributions to the periodical literature.
In 1888 he reported the first known aneurysmorrhaphy worldwide. A decade
later Matas performed the first successful preplanned attempt at intraspinal
cocainization."* *excerpt from: Rutkow, Ira M., Surgery: An Illustrated History (St. Louis: Mosby, 1993), p.499.
