1804-1880

American surgeon who was the first physician to excise a human kidney. Wolcott received a surgical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Western New York. Moving to Fort Mackinaw, Wisconsin, to serve as an Army surgeon, he established a practice in Milwaukee where he performed the kidney operation. Wolcott was the state militia's surgeon general and, after the Civil War, Congress named him director of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.