Appendicitis was first recognised by the American surgeon Fitts in 1886. Three years later, the New York surgeon Charles McBurney (1845-1913) described the location of greatest pain in this condition: ‘… between an inch and a half and two inches from the anterior spinous process of the ilium on a straight line drawn from that process to the umbilicus’. He also advocated early surgical treatment and described a variety of surgical techniques.