[160 years St. Mark's Hospital in London--a brief historical excursion].

The St. Mark's Hospital in London is one of the oldest and most renown centers of colorectal surgery and science. The historical building in the City Road was inaugurated by Frederick Salmon in 1835 who founded the "St. Mark's Hospital for Fistula". In the summer of 1995 the institution left City Road to be relocated on the modern and spacious premises of Northwick Park north of London. The author and scholar of the Coloplast Foundation at St. Mark's, takes the opportunity of the 160th anniversary to review the hospital's history and some of its famous physicians.