Howard Atwood Kelly was one of the four founding chairs (along with William Stewart Halsted, William Osler, and William Welch) at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and creators of the Hopkins legacy.  Kelly was a clinical innovator, performing the first successful Cesarean section (C-section) in Philadelphia in 1888, and pioneered the use of radium in the treatment of gynecological cancer. The consummate clinician, his name is behind the Kelly clamp and he is the one identified with the test to find the ureter by stimulating its peristalsis by touching it with a forcep. His lasting legacy was the residency program in obstetrics and gynecology at Hopkins and the generation of leaders he trained.

The recipient is almost assuredly fellow physician James R. Rankin of Muncy, Pennsylvania. In 1905, Rankin accompanied Kelly and Osler to Great Britain, "sharing with them their meetings with eminent British surgeons, attending clinics and having the honor of speaking at a banquet in London's famous Guild Hall tendered the distinguished Americans by the Royal College of Surgeons" (Rankin obituary).

A very good copy, top edge gilt, deckle edges, two interior pages severely browned from inserted news clipping.  Accompanied by the quite scarce dust wrapper, also very good, dust soiled, two small chips to spine, edge wear and a few edge tears.