At the time of the origin of the American Proctologic Society in 1899, Proctology as a specialty was practically non-existent and some of it was in the hands of irregular practitioners. The original founders practiced by their own efforts and were perforce mostly self-trained in their specialty.

Since the founding of the Society, it has grown into one of the great national specialty organizations. Through constant changes in requirements, incentive has been furnished toward the formation and maintenance of high standards, which have increased as our knowledge has increased. The educational aims of the Society have been partially fulfilled by the annual meetings, reviews of the literature and publications of scientific papers in the Transactions.