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Harvey Cushing | |
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 Harvey Cushing in 1938 | |
| Born | Harvey Williams Cushing (1869-04-08)April 8, 1869 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | October 7, 1939(1939-10-07) (aged 70) New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education | Yale University (BA) Harvard University (MD) |
| Years active | 1895–1935 |
| Known for |
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| Children | 5, includingMary,Betsey, andBarbara |
| Medical career | |
| Profession |
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| Institutions | Private practice (Baltimore) Johns Hopkins Hospital (Associate Professor of Surgery, c. 1891) Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and (surgeon-in-chief) Harvard Medical Yale School of Medicine (Sterling Professor of Medicine in Neurology, 1933–1937) |
| Awards | Fellow ofAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh (1924) Pulitzer Prize (1926) Lister Medal (1930) |
Harvey Williams Cushing (April 8, 1869 – October 7, 1939) was an Americanneurosurgeon,pathologist, writer, anddraftsman. A pioneer of brain surgery, he was the first exclusive neurosurgeon and the first person to describeCushing's disease. He wrote a biography of physicianWilliam Osler in three volumes.
Cushing was born inCleveland, Ohio. His parents were Elizabeth Maria "Betsey M." Williams (sister ofEdward andCharles Williams) and Henry Kirke Cushing,[1] a physician whose ancestors came toHingham, Massachusetts, asPuritans in the 17th century.[2] Harvey, the fourth generation of a line of physicians founded by his great-grandfather Dr. David Cushing (1768–1814), was the youngest of ten children.[3]
As a child, Cushing attended the Cleveland Manual Training School, which expanded his interest in science and medicine. The school's emphasis on experimental training and a "physics-focused" approach to education played an important role in influencing Cushing toward a career in medical surgery. The school's manual dexterity training program also contributed to Cushing's future success as a surgeon.[4]
He graduated with anB.A. degree in 1891 fromYale University, where he was a member ofScroll and Key andDelta Kappa Epsilon (Phi chapter). He studied medicine atHarvard Medical School and earned hismedical degree in 1895. Cushing completed his internship atMassachusetts General Hospital and then did a residency in surgery under the guidance of pioneering surgeonWilliam Stewart Halsted at theJohns Hopkins Hospital inBaltimore.
He subsequently trained in neurological surgery abroad underEmil Theodor Kocher atBern andCharles Scott Sherrington atLiverpool.
Cushing began his career in private practice in Baltimore. During his time with Kocher, he first encountered theCushing reflex, which describes the relationship betweenblood pressure andintracranial pressure. At the age of 32, he was made associate professor of surgery atJohns Hopkins Hospital and was placed in full charge of cases of surgery of thecentral nervous system. He wrote numerous monographs on surgery of the brain andspinal column and made important contributions inbacteriology. He conducted (with Vakil) a study of intracerebral pressure and (with Sherrington) contributed much to the localization of the cerebral centers.
In Baltimore, he developed the method of operating with localanesthesia, and his paper on its use inhernia gave him a European reputation. In 1911, he was appointed surgeon-in-chief at thePeter Bent Brigham Hospital inBoston.[5] He became a professor of surgery at the Harvard Medical School starting in 1912.[6] In 1913, he was made an honoraryF.R.C.S. (London). He was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1914.[7] In 1915, before the Clinical Congress of Surgeons in Boston, he showed the possibility of influencing stature by operating on thepituitary gland.[5] In 1924, Cushing was awarded theCameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh.
Shortly after the entry of the United States intoWorld War I, Cushing was commissioned as a major in theU.S. Army Medical Corps on May 5, 1917. He was director ofAmerican Base Hospital No. 5, which was attached to theBritish Expeditionary Force in France.[8] Cushing also served as the head of a surgical unit in a French military hospital outside ofParis. During his time at the French military hospital, Cushing experimented with the use of electromagnets to extract metallicshrapnel fragments that were lodged within the brain.[9] He was mentioned in a dispatch by Field Marshal SirDouglas Haig in November 1917.[10][11]
On June 6, 1918, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was assigned as senior consultant in neurological surgery for theAmerican Expeditionary Forces in Europe. In early October, while in France, he came down with what he described as "the grippe,"[12] which was probably theSpanish flu. He would never fully recover.[13] He attained the rank ofcolonel (O-6) on October 23, 1918.[5] In that capacity, he treated Lieutenant Edward Revere Osler, who was fatally wounded during the third battle ofYpres. Lieutenant Osler was the son of SirWilliam Osler.[14]
Cushing returned to the United States in February 1919 and was discharged on April 9, 1919. In recognition of his service during the war, Cushing was invested as aCompanion of the Bath by the British government.[10] In 1923, he was awarded theDistinguished Service Medal by the U.S. Army.[15]
Cushing authored thePulitzer prize-winning biography,Life of Sir William Osler (London: Oxford University Press, 1925).[16]
From 1933 to 1937, when he retired, he worked at theYale School of Medicine asSterling Professor of Neurology.[6]
Cushing married his Cleveland childhood friend Katharine Stone Crowell (1870–1949), granddaughter of Ohio congressmanJohn Crowell, on June 10, 1902. They had five children, including three daughters famed for their beauty and collectively known as the 'Cushing sisters':
Cushing died on October 7, 1939, inNew Haven, Connecticut, from complications of amyocardial infarction.[6][21] He was interred atLake View Cemetery in Cleveland.[22] An autopsy performed on Cushing revealed that his brain harbored acolloid cyst of thethird ventricle.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Cushing developed many of the basic surgical techniques for operating on the brain. This established him as one of the foremost leaders and experts in the field. Under his influence, neurosurgery became a new and autonomous surgical discipline.
Arguably, Cushing's greatest contribution came with his introduction to North America of blood pressure measurement. Upon visiting colleagueScipione Riva-Rocci, an Italian physician, Cushing was astonished by Riva-Rocci's non-invasive way of measuring intra-arterial pressure. In 1896, Riva-Rocci developed a wall-mountedmercurymanometer linked to a balloon-inflated cuff that would measure the pressure needed to compress arterialsystolic pressure, i.e. systolic blood pressure measurement. Riva-Rocci's design was based on a more primitive version developed by French physicianPierre Potain. Cushing returned to the US with a sample of Riva-Rocci'ssphygmomanometer and blood pressure measurement became a vital sign. The use of the Riva-Rocci sphygmomanometer as a diagnostic tool rapidly spread across the US and Western world, a direct contribution by Harvey Cushing. The device's use continued until Russian physicianNikolai Korotkov includeddiastolic blood pressure measurement in 1905 (after he discovered the famed "Korotkoff sounds") with his improved sphygmomanometer, which also replaced the mercury manometer with a smaller, round dial manometer.[23]
Cushing's name is commonly associated with his most famous discovery,Cushing's disease. In 1912 he reported in a study an endocrinological syndrome caused by a malfunction of thepituitary gland which he termed "polyglandular syndrome." He published his findings in 1932 as "The Basophil Adenomas of the Pituitary Body and Their Clinical Manifestations: pituitary Basophilism".[24]
Cushing was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1914.[25] In 1917, Cushing was elected to the United StatesNational Academy of Sciences.[26] Cushing was also awarded the 1926Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for a book recounting the life of one of the fathers of modern medicine, SirWilliam Osler.[27] In 1930, Cushing was awarded theLister Medal for his contributions to surgical science. As part of the award, he delivered the Lister Memorial Lecture at theRoyal College of Surgeons of England in July 1930.[28][29] That same year, he was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society.[30] Cushing was elected to theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1934, and aFellow of the Royal Society of London.[31] He served as president of theHistory of Science Society in 1934.[32] Cushing was also a candidate for theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, nominated at least 38 times.[33]
TheWorld War IILiberty ShipSS Harvey Cushing was named in his honor. Cushing General Hospital (now Cushing Memorial Park) inFramingham, Massachusetts, was named for him.
In 1988, theUnited States Postal Service issued a 45-cent postage stamp in his honor, as part of theGreat Americans series.[34]
Cushing developed many surgical instruments that are in use today, most notably Cushing forceps and the Cushing ventricular cannula. The forceps instrument is used to grasp the thick tissues of the scalp during cranial surgery and the cannula is used to enter the brain ventricles for CSF drainage. He also developed a surgical magnet while working with the Harvard Medical Unit in France during World War I to extract shrapnel from the heads of wounded soldiers.
TheHarvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library[35] atYale University contains extensive collections in the field of medicine and the history of medicine. Cushing's long-time personal secretary,Madeline Stanton, played a major role in organizing his rare book donations, along with those fromJohn F. Fulton andArnold C. Klebs, to form the library.[36] In 2005, the library released portions of its collection online, including thePeter Parker Collection which consists of a collection of portrait engravings and 83 mid-19th-century oil paintings rendered by artistLam Qua of Chinese tumor patients, and a biography of Harvey Cushing byJohn F. Fulton. In 2010, Yale placed on display Cushing's collection of brain specimens.[37] There is also a collection of his papers at the National Library of Medicine.[38]
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography from 1917–2022 | ||
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