USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Fifty years of Boston; a memorial volume issued in commemoration of the tercentenary of 1930; 1880-1930, Pt. 2 > Part 2
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
"I believe, however, that our most significant contribution has been that of preaching the gospel of industrial research during many
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
years when manufacturers had no conception of what research meant and were profoundly skeptical of the value of chemistry to them. To this I would add my conception of the new method of teaching chem- ical engineering, which is embodied in the School of Chemical Engineer- ing Practice of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and which has since been adopted by other institutions."
Of the inventions in which the general public of today are keenly interested and which have originated in Boston, that of the Technicolor Process for making motion pictures in colors is one of the most noteworthy. This process, which has outstripped all others, was devised by Dr. Herbert T. Kalmus and Dr. Daniel F. Comstock, both at one time connected with the department of physics at the Institute of Technology. One might include also among Boston inven- tions of world-wide fame, the Gillette safety razor, of which it is said that the originator acquired a fortune but ruined a fine art.
The connection of Boston with the development of the automobile is chiefly confined to the very early stages of its introduction. Kenneth A. Skinner imported in 1895 the first gas car in America and drove it about the streets of this city. This car and others, which he imported soon after, served as models from which grew some of the early American cars. Charles Metz of Waltham was among the first manufacturers of gasolene cars but his cars were not so widely known as the Stanley steamers, built by the Stanley brothers in Newton.
The fame of the American Waltham Watch Company is so great that a Bostonian is tempted to claim at least a close kinship to the "Watch City," and a share in the prestige of this well-known company. In 1882 this company secured the services of Duane A. Church, already well known as a maker of fine watches. Mr. Church, while in Waltham, devised automatic machinery for making the hundreds of small pieces contained in a watch and for inaking them so accurately that a given piece would fit any watch of the type to which it belonged. These inventions, together with those for automatic assem- bling, completely revolutionized the watch industry throughout the world.
To continue with a list of the hundreds of improvements and innovations of local origin, which may be termed inventions and which have had a part in the steady development of an age of machinery and scientific processes, is an almost hopeless task and would require a volume not unlike a patent office report. The writer gives up the attempt only to turn to another subject almost as diffi- cult, namely, the enumeration of persons not heretofore mentioned who have made notable contributions to science. Here, too, only a few can be selected and the choice may justly be open to criticism on the ground of omission.
The names of many eminent scientists of this locality have already been mentioned in connection with the various lines of progress described, but there yet remain many others probably equally worthy of note, if sufficient space were available. Professor Elihu Thomson, for example, has been a leading man of science for a generation in this vicinity. Nearly fifty years ago the Thomson-Houston Company was established in Lynn, under the direction of Professor Thomson, originally to manufacture arc lights under his patents. The business of the company rapidly expanded and within a few years it had
413
SCIENCE AND INVENTION
become one of the leading electric companies in this country. In 1892 the Thomson-Houston Electric Company and the Edison General Electric Com- pany were combined under the name of the General Electric Company. Edwin W. Rice, who had been associated with Professor Thomson from the beginning, became president of the General Electric and Professor Thomson remained in charge of the scientific development. He is still the chief consulting engineer of the General Electric Company.
The most significant contribution to the growing science of psychology was made by Dr. Morton Prince who, following the lead of Charcot, turned his attention to the problems of consciousness and personality. His work, "The Dissociation of a Personality," which appeared in 1905, directed the attention of the medical profession to the possibilities of a true psychological insight and a rational psychotherapy in connection with the lighter mental disorders, hysteria and the neuroses. The magazine he established, "The Journal of Abnormal Psychology," 1906, became the mouthpiece of the newly developed dynamic psychology.
Two astronomers to whom Boston is proud to lay claim are Samuel P. Langley and Percival Lowell. The former was born in this city in 1834. He acquired a very high reputation for his work in astral physics before he was called to the Sinithsonian Institute in Washington, but he is most widely known for his pioneer work on aviation. Mr. Lowell, a member of the well-known Boston family, had broad interests in science and education and was one of the founders of the Mathematical and Physical Club of Boston. He did much of his astronomical work at the observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona, and his publi- cations on the origin and significance of the canals on Mars provoked widespread controversy.
Still another astronomer who was a native of Boston, Rev. Anthony J. Tondorf, S. J., acquired a national reputation as a seismologist and as director of the observatory at Georgetown.
Among the women of this city who have become authorities in their respec- tive fields, Miss Alice C. Fletcher holds a high place as an ethnologist. Her studies of the traditions, customs and religions of the American Indian made her a leading authority on Indian archæology.
A scientist of this locality, whose opinion is sought from all quarters of the globe because of his highly specialized knowledge, is Dr. Joseph A. Cushman of Sharon. By the examination of the microscopic-fossil nature of certain rocks and from a knowledge of the geological strata from which they come, he is able to predict with a fair degree of certainty whether or not the region in which they are found is oil-bearing.
The progress of science in Boston in the past fifty years is measured not only by the amount of research which has been carried on here but also by the opportunities for stimulation in scientific thought offered by meetings of scien- tific societies and by lectures by eminent scientists. The famous "Lowell Lectures," which are restricted to no particular branch of learning and which have so greatly added to the prestige of Boston as an intellectual center, have from the beginning catered to and fostered interest in scientific subjects. Indeed the first course of Lowell Lectures, given in 1840, was delivered by one of the
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
foremost scientists of his day, Benjamin Silliman. A list of the lecturers since 1880 includes the names of many men, both American and foreign, who are, or have been, the leading authorities in the world in their respective fields. Most of them naturally have been Americans and many have been drawn from Boston and Cambridge. Among the foreigners may be mentioned Wilhelm Ostwald and Sir William Ramsay in chemistry; Sir Robert S. Ball in astronomy; James Geikic and G. H. Darwin in geology; and Sir Edward Poulton, Sir Michael Foster, Stanley Gardner and Sir John Murray in biological sciences.
At the meetings of the various scientific societies of Boston, also, both popular lectures and highly technical ones have been given during the past fifty years in almost countless numbers. Nearly all the leading men of science in America have spoken in Boston at one time or another; and as for the foreigners, from Einstein down, they all appear delighted at an opportunity to give a course of lectures in America. The tour invariably includes an appearance here. The scientific societies, however, have done much more than sponsor courses of lectures, for they have had great influence in maintaining the high scientific level of the city. The foremost of these societies is, undoubtedly, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the second oldest scientific society in America. In the spacious building of the Society on Newbury street is housed one of the most complete libraries of scientific journals on this side of the Atlantic. The Society has published in its "Proceedings" hundreds of papers of great scientific importance. It is the custodian of various funds and makes grants from these for conducting special reasearches. The Boston Society of Natural History is another of the older scientific societies. Not only does it maintain the Museum of Natural History on Boylston street but it publishes many valuable papers and stimulates work in the natural sciences by the award of prizes for essays of particular merit.
The Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society is one of the most active of the scientific organizations of Boston. It is among the largest and most influential branches of that great society, which includes most American chemists and in the journals of which appears a very large part of all that is published in America in this important field. The Boston Section holds monthly inectings, at which there is always a distinguished speaker to be heard.
Men in other branches of science have local societies of varying degrces of formal organization and with differing aims as to the furthering of highly specialized or popular phases of their respective subjects. Of the former kind the colloquia and clubs, which are part of the organized work in the depart- ments of science at Harvard and at the Institute of Technology, are of the highest value in maintaining the reputation of Boston as an intellectual scientific center. At thesc meetings the most recent advances in highly specialized fields arc discussed and distinguished visiting foreign scientists can be heard and met informally.
The teaching of science in our colleges and secondary schools has, of course, progressed with the growth of science itself, but the bitter struggle which science had long waged for recognition in a literary community was still in progress in
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SCIENCE AND INVENTION
1880. Professor Josiah P. Cooke, director of the Harvard Chemieal Laboratory, wrote of the matter in a report as late as 1890 as follows:
"But the battle against the preseribed methods of the old seholastie systein has not yet been wholly won. When will literary scholars learn that there ean be no universal system of education and that what may be intellectual food in one department of knowledge is often poison in another? Physical seienee has its peculiar methods and its peculiar diseipline; and its value as a means of education lies solely in these features. To preseribe for the study of natural seienee the forms adapted for literary studies is to lose the only real value of such study, or at least to use it for a discipline which ean be far better gained by other means. Book learning is a good thing, in some departments the only thing; but physical seienee ean never be learned to any valuable purpose from books."
Nevertheless, considerable progress had been made at Harvard because of the efforts of Professor Cooke, who acknowledged that "My own efforts in that direction would have been unavailing had it not been for the sympathy and support of President Eliot." By 1880 well-organized eourses were being given at Harvard in physies, chemistry and the natural sciences. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was of necessity on a scientific basis from the beginning.
In the secondary sehools of Boston the science of the day, a far different subject from the seiences of the present, had been taught for many years. Indeed, when the Boston English High School was established in 1821, natural philosophy (physics) and astronomy were ineluded in the program of study. By 1881, when the "new" building was opened on Montgomery street, botany and zoology were taught in the second year and physies or chemistry in the third and fourth years. These courses, however, were not very satisfactory on the experimental side, as was generally true of all high school courses in seienee at that time. There was established, therefore, at Harvard in 1886 a very elementary eourse in chemistry to serve as a model for teachers preparing students for admission to college. This eourse was given also in the "summer school" and was largely attended by high school teachers. A similar course in physies was established at about the same time. Descriptions of these eourses were published by the university and they undoubtedly exerted a great influenee on the teaching of these subjects in American schools.
After the College Entranee Examination Board had beeome established and had published statements of the requirements in the various subjeets in which it gave examination, instruction in physies and in chemistry beeame fairly well standardized throughout the country and the courses in the Boston sehools conformed to these standards. As, however, with sueeeeding years a larger and larger proportion of high school students do not go to college, a more infor- mational and popular type of course has been demanded. In the Boston English High School at present are given two sueh courses in physies, one without laboratory work and one with it, and one sueh course in chemistry.
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
These are in addition to college preparatory courses. In the Latin School college preparatory physics is the only substantial course given in science. Some changes have been made in the college entrance requirements to meet the needs of students who study science but who do not continue beyond the high school. Yet there is a very strong feeling at present that the colleges dominate too much the teaching of science in secondary schools in Boston as elsewhere. Applied science has been established in the schools of Boston for many years, in the Mechanic Arts High School, founded in 1893, and in the High School of Practical Arts for Girls, founded in 1907.
The first three-quarters of the nineteenth century was distinctly a literary age and during most of this time Boston was the acknowledged literary center of the country. But during the past fifty years, with the increase of prosperity and social organization throughout the country, literary production and apprecia- tion have become more widespread and Boston does not hold so exclusive a position as formerly. Since it is during this period of more diffuse education and culture that science has had its rise, no one locality has had the prestige in science that Boston once enjoyed in literature. Yet as one reviews the progress of pure and applied science here in the last half-century, a Bostonian may be pardoned for a natural feeling of pride in the influence which his fellow-citizens have had on the great development of America in science and invention. The wealth of material upon which to base this satisfaction is so great that the writer has been embarrassed in making his choice and he is sure that much has been omitted fully as worthy of mention as what has been included. Despite the generous response, which he gratefully acknowledges, to his numer- ous calls for information, and in spite of the great help which he has got from that invaluable source, "The Development of Harvard University, 1869-1929," edited by Samuel Eliot Morison, he has found his task difficult, but he is cer- tain that it has been simplicity itself compared to what awaits the author of a similar review in 1980.
1
THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE IN BOSTON, 1880-1930
By HENRY A. CHRISTIAN
In the historical volumes commemorative of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Boston the story of medicine from the beginning down to 1880 has been told by others (Dr. Samuel A. Green and Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes). An added fifty years brings us to the Tercentenary Anni- versary, which we now celebrate, and at this time it is appropriate to review the medical events of this period. Fifty years is but a short span of time, and yet in the development of the sciences and their applications this particular semi- centennial period, perhaps, has witnessed greater progress and more change than has ever before occurred since the dawn of civilization. Medicine, which is an applied science as well as an art, has shared richly in this progress.
Let us turn back the hands of time to 1880 and imagine ourselves ill and seeking help from the practitioners of that day. Illness in all probability would be cared for in the home, for hospitals were used far less then than now and hardly at all by the well-to-do. People in general had homes, and there they were sick and died. Many had an actual fear of hospitals, which in subsequent years happily has been dispelled. The methods of medicine in very large measure could be applied in the home fully as well as in the hospital. Even surgical operations very commonly were done in the patient's home, any room being readily convertible to the needs of the surgeon. All of this bespeaks a simplicity in the measures used by the physician for the diagnosis and treatment of disease in contrast to the great complexity of today. The simple measures advised by the physician, too, were carried out by a member of the family or a maid or at times by one who from experience had come to be known as a nurse. The "trained nurse" of today hardly existed at that time in Boston, for it was not until 1872 that a training school for nurses, the first in America, was estab- lished at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. A year later the Boston Training School for Nurses was given a connection with the Massa- chusetts General Hospital, the same year that training schools were begun at Bellevue Hospital in New York and at the New Haven Hospital. The physician would have been summoned by a messenger, for it was not until the middle 70's that Bell had spoken the first words into a telephone receiver to be heard by his assistant in the neighboring room, and it was long after this before the average home possessed a telephone. To the home the doctor made his way in a manner strangely leisurely to us of today; probably on foot, if the distance was short, or on horseback or by buggy or sleigh, were it longer. Telephone, automobile and aeroplane since then have changed vastly the ways of the practice of medi- cine, for to them distance and time are almost nonexistent.
With the doctor came a bag of meager proportions, in which were contained not only all that he needed for the examination of his patient but the means for treatment, since it was common for the physician to leave at the time of his
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
visit such medicines as he wished his patient to have in the interval between this and his next visit, or until some more elaborate prescription might be sent to the drug store for compounding. Usually the physician came prepared to usher into the world a new inhabitant, were that the cause for his call, since the instruments he required to this end would occupy but little additional space in his bag, and almost all practitioners of that time were obstetricians, too. Even in case of a surgical operation no very great bulk of instruments and materials was required, and the same man might either operate or prescribe, for many of that day practiced both surgery and medicine. The day of specialism was just beginning in this general period and had scarcely advanced much beyond a few who confined their practice to surgery,- fewer than might be thought, for the surgeon of that day rarely declined to treat purely medical conditions, if they developed in his patients, while, as I have said, many that did not call them- selves surgeons did not hesitate to operate if there was need. Then, too, in 1880 surgery had a very limited field of application, as will be seen later.
When the physician arrived, he would question the patient as to his symp- toms, and, if he did not already know, he would ask about past events that might have a bearing on the present illness. As a rule, the physician already was familiar with the patient's past, for in that period physicians were family physicians in the full sense of the term and most probably had served at the patient's birth and cared for him ever since whenever he was ill. The examina- tion of the patient would be very simple, depending largely on the utilization of the physician's five senses, unaided by other than very simple apparatus. There would be a thermometer for recording temperature, and the physician would use a stethoscope to aid him in listening to heart and lungs. He would take a specimen of urine for simple chemical and microscopical examination. In 1880 little else than this could be done in the study of a patient.
However, do not get the impression that these physicians were unable to make excellent diagnoses and to institute adequate treatment. These men were keen observers and made deductions wisely from such data as they were able to obtain. Experience had developed in them a critical clinical judg- ment, which they utilized with great wisdom. The best of them never injured a patient by a too rigorous or an ill-selected form of treatment but judiciously aided nature to grapple with those diseases for which they possessed no specific forms of treatment. Many diseases, it is true, could be helped little by the physicians of that day, diseases which with few exceptions today can be con- trolled, for, as already stated, medicine has made great forward strides in this fifty-year period.
In 1880 Boston had many of the hospitals which are in existence today. The Boston City Hospital, the Boston Lying-In, the Carney, the Children's, the Massachusetts General and St. Elizabeth's Hospitals, the Adams Nervine, the Boston Dispensary, the Channing Home, the House of the Good Samaritan, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and the New England Hospital for Women and Children, with several smaller hospitals, had already been organized, most of them within a twenty-year period. The Boston Dispensary (1796), the Massachusetts General Hospital (1811), the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirinary (1827) and the Boston Lying-In Hospital (1832), which unfor-
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EDUCATIONAL AND MEDICAL CENTER, BACK BAY
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FIFTY YEARS OF BOSTON
tunately was discontinued for a time, were the only really old institutions. In the intervening fifty years not a great number have been added to this list. Of these the New England Deaconess Hospital with the affiliated Palmer Memorial Hospital, the Peter Bent Brigham, the Robert B. Brigham and the Beth Israel Hospitals are notable. Meanwhile almost all of the earlier insti- tutions have grown greatly in size and all have increased in usefulness.
As to size in 1880, as contrasted with 1929, the following figures are of interest:
NUMBER OF BEDS
NUMBER OF WARD PATIENTS
NUMBER OF OUT-PATIENT VISITS
1880
1929
1880
1929
1880
1929
Boston City Hospital.
387
1,941
4,707
30,054
37,162
346,734
Boston Dispensary
* 18
127
218
2,073
t 0
17,450
Carney Hospital.
100
210
581
3,703
1,867
44,733
Children's Hospital
30
237
199
4,102
t 0
57,827
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary,
28
231
476
7,764
9,390
90,873
Massachusetts General Hospital.
226
529
2,123
8,143
37,245
176,651
New England Hospital for Women and Children.
58
240
315
2,216
4,060
14,045
* This was the number of beds in 1875; probably there were no more in 1880.
t Out-Patient Department not opened until after 1SS0.
Great as are these increases in the size of the hospitals and the number of patients treated, mere figures express very inadequately the progress that Boston's hospitals have made since 1880. In very many ways there has been development of the older functions of the hospitals, while many new functions have been created, so that these hospitals today touch the daily life of Boston's citizens in ways undreamed of fifty years ago.
At the present time it is conceded generally that the modern hospital has three functions,- care of patients, advance of medical knowledge and educa- tion of physicians, medical students, nurses and patients. About this triad Boston hospitals have developed rapidly.
At first thought, one might think that there was little relationship between these three functions, but such is not the case. In fact, it is almost impossible to state where one function ends and another begins. Of course, the prime consideration of every hospital is the patient; the patient comes first, but one cannot have the patient in the hospital without consciously and unconsciously educating him to a better knowledge of how to live. One cannot care for the patient in the best possible way without utilizing the services of physicians,
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