[Relations of Theodor Kocher with the "International Society of Surgery". His role as the 1st congress president].

With the aim of promoting progress in surgery through the friendly exchange of views and experience, the first International Society of Surgery was founded at Brussels in 1902, hereby helping to overcome the narrow boundaries of that times' nationalism. At its first congress, the "International Society of Surgery (ISS)", otherwise known by its French name "Société Internationale de Chirurgie (SIC)", numbered already 638 members, amongst them the most important surgeons from all over the world. Theodor Kocher was the president of the first congress, held at Brussels in 1905, and was also responsible for the choice of topics. His presidential address clearly reflected the high aims the Society set itself. Kocher's personal and professional authority, his surgical skill, which he liked so much to communicate to his colleagues, and his internationally minded thinking shaped the young society. He remained in the international committee of the ISS until his death in 1917.