The Warrens and Other Pioneering Clinician Pathologists of the Massachusetts General Hospital During its Early Years

An Appreciation on the 200th Anniversary of the Hospital Founding

Robert H Young; David N Louis

Mod Pathol. 2011;24(10):1285-1294.

The End of the Beginning: William T Councilman and James Homer Wright

William T Councilman arrived at HMS to succeed Fitz as Shattuck Professor of Pathological Anatomy in 1892. This augured a new era of pathology in Boston, reflecting the changing times.^[28] Although he never worked at the MGH, he had a seminal role in the development of pathology there because of his recommendations in the early 1890s to the MGH Trustees to establish a Pathology laboratory and to hire a full-time pathologist to oversee all of the laboratories (ie, bacteriology, autopsy, etc, as well as surgical pathology), and through the recruitment to MGH of one of his students, James Homer Wright, to the position. Dr Wright had been working at the Boston City Hospital since 1893. He assumed this position on 13 March 1896 when he was still only 26 years old.^[2] The new MGH laboratory was officially opened on 16 October 1896, the 50th anniversary of the first public demonstration of the use of ether anesthesia, appropriately linking Wright's appointment with the first John Collins Warren. A new era began but the contributions of the early pioneers are clearly deserving of their own place in the annals of pathology.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Next Section

Acknowledgements
This essay would have been impossible for us to write without the material donated to us by Dr Robert E Scully and the late Dr Austin L Vickery Jr, some of which was a result of their own research.^[3] Furthermore, during the writing of this essay we were fortunate to be able to call upon Dr Scully to answer a number of questions and we are grateful to him for sharing information based on his vast knowledge of the history of pathology in general and of the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dominic Hall (Warren Anatomical Museum, Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School), Jack Eckert (Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School), Martha Stone (Treadwell Library, Massachusetts General Hospital), all provided great assistance for this essay and we are indebted to all of them.

Disclosure/conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Cite this: The Warrens and Other Pioneering Clinician Pathologists of the Massachusetts General Hospital During its Early Years - Medscape - Oct 01, 2011.

Abstract and Introduction
The Beginnings of Pathology at the MGH and HMS: John Collins Warren and JBS Jackson
The Start of Microscopy at the MGH: Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Bacon and Calvin Ellis
The First 'Pathologist' at the MGH: Reginald Heber Fitz
The Development of Surgical Pathology: J. Collins Warren
The First 'Surgical Pathologist': William Fiske Whitney
The End of the Beginning: William T Councilman and James Homer Wright
References

Table 1. Early clinician pathologists of the Massachusetts General Hospital and their major roles and contributions
John Collins Warren
One of the two founders of the MGH
Publications on gross pathology
First public demonstration of ether anesthesia
Began the collection that became the Warren Anatomical Museum
John Barnard Swett Jackson
First professor of Pathology in the United States
Developed Warren Anatomical Museum, serving as first Curator
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Popularized the use of the microscope at HMS
May have influenced the purchase of the first microscope at the MGH
Drew attention to the contagious nature of puerperal fever
John Bacon Jr
First Microscopist and Chemist at MGH
Calvin Ellis
First MGH physician to use the microscope to evaluate anatomical specimens
Reginald Heber Fitz
First officially designated 'Pathologist' at the MGH
Characterized and named 'appendicitis' and encouraged its surgical treatment
Wrote seminal paper on acute pancreatitis
J Collins Warren
Began recording of microscopic diagnoses in patient records at MGH
Demonstrated use of biopsy needle and biopsies for patient management
Use of the term 'surgical pathology' (in the title of a textbook)
Early work with frozen sections
William Fiske Whitney
First officially designated 'Surgical Pathologist' at the MGH
First full-time anatomical pathologist
Active in intraoperative pathology consultation

Abbreviations: HMS, Harvard Medical School; MGH, Massachusetts General Hospital.

Comments

Commenting is limited to medical professionals. To comment please Log-in.

Comments on Medscape are moderated and should be professional in tone and on topic. You must declare any conflicts of interest related to your comments and responses. Please see our Commenting Guide for further information. We reserve the right to remove posts at our sole discretion.