SNIPPET: John Benjamin MURPHY (1857-1916), was an American surgeon internationally famous as a teacher and a doctor. Dr. William MAYO once described MURPHY as "the surgical genius of our generation." MURPHY's battle to establish appendicitis as a surgical disease contributed greatly to surgical progress. He developed new techniques in surgery of the blood vessels, joints, and tendons. He invented the "Murphy button" in 1892, a device that linked together the severed ends of intestines. It led to important advances in intestinal surgery. From 1895 to 1916, he was chief surgeon at Mercy Hospital, Chicago. He was a professor of surgery at Rush Medical College and Northwestern University. He was born in a log cabin in Appleton, Wisconsin.