The 1930s: Medicine And Health: People in the News

THE 1930s: MEDICINE AND HEALTH: PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

In 1937 Dr. L. B. Alford, Saint Louis, stated that brain operations indicated that a small section of the left side of the posterior brain in right-handed persons controlled the functioning of the mind.

Dr. C. W. Alvarez of the Mayo Clinic found disease of the gallbladder to be the most frequent cause of indigestion or abdominal distress in 1930.

Drs. Charles Armstrong and W. T. Harrison, National Institute of Health, reported in 1935, that a solution of alum used as a spray enabled 74 percent of the animals so treated to survive infantile paralysis. In 1936 the doctors announced their nasal spray of picric acid-sodium alum offered hope of a successful preventive for infantile paralysis; the drugs used in the spray could be purchased at any pharmacy

Working independently in 1937, Dr. Charles Armstrong, National Institute of Health, and Drs. E. W. Schultz and L. P. Gebhardt, Stanford University, found that inoculation with a zinc sulphate or with picric acid and alum solution successfully immunized monkeys against infantile paralysis.

Autopsy reports studied by Drs. D. L. Augustine and W. W. Spink, Harvard University, revealed in 1936 that 20 percent of the individuals had suffered from trichinosis, the disease caused by worm-infested pork.

On 8 August 1930 O. T. Avery and René Dubos announced that an enzyme, isolated from New Jersey cranberry bog soil, was effective in treating pneumonia in mice.

Dr. L. W. Aycock of Harvard Medical School announced in 1930 that infantile paralysis was due to the destruction of muscle-controlling nerve cells in the spinal cord.

In 1934 Dr. L. W. Aycock of the Harvard University Infantile Paralysis Commission stated that studies suggested susceptibility to polio might be inherited.

In 1930 Dr. W. S. Baer of Johns Hopkins Medical School introduced the use of maggots into infected bone cavities of osteomyelitis sufferers to remove the dead tissue and products of infection with no harm done to the patient.

Subjecting pituitary and adrenal glands to X rays was found an effective treatment for diabetes in animals, according to Drs. B. O, Barnes, W. L. Culpepper, and J. H. Hutton, Chicago, in 1935.

In 1931 Dr. Walter Bauer and associates at the Massachusetts General Hospital discovered that the intense pain of lead colic, gallstone colic, and urethral colic was relieved by slow injections of calcium chloride into the veins.

In 1938 Dr. H. C. Bazett, University of Pennsylvania, stated that all individuals had 30 percent more blood in spring than in fall and winter.

In 1937 George Beadle and Edward Tatum developed the one gene-one enzyme theory that stated that all chemical reactions in the cell are controlled by enzymes and that each enzyme is controlled by a single gene; the two won the 1958 Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology for their work.

Dr. Alfred Blalock of Vanderbilt University Medical School studied surgical shock in 1931 and recommended the replacement of fluid loss stemming from surgery as a valuable treatment.

Dr. Sidney Bliss of Tulane University reported evidence in 1931 that lack of iron in the diet was the cause of pellagra.

Dr. Emil Bogen, Olive View, California, asserted in 1934 that cancer of the breast in women was the penalty for not nursing their children.

Drs. Paul Boyle and David Weisberger, Harvard University, reported in 1937 that a deficiency of vitamin C, the cause of scurvy, might also be the cause of pyorrhea.

Professors Jean Broadhurst, Columbia University, and Gladys Cameron, New York University, reported in 1938 that their researches indicated scarlet fever was caused by a nasal virus rather than a streptococcus.

In 1934 Drs. Maurice Brodie and A. R. Elvidge, working under Dr. W. H. Park, New York City Department of Health, produced a serum for infantile paralysis that was apparently successful on a test group of children. Their findings confirmed Dr. Simon Flexner' s theory that the olfactory nerve might be the gateway by which the virus penetrated the nervous system.

In 1935 Dr. Maurice Brodie, New York Health Department, working under the direction of Dr. W. H. Park, announced that animals had been successfully immunized against sleeping sickness.

In 1931 Dr. J. Bronfenbrenner and associates at Washington University developed a process for changing the chemical nature of the proteins in protective or curative serums.

In 1932 Dr. Reginald Burbank reported the development of a vaccine for chronic rheumatism.

Dr. C. G. Burn, Yale University, reported the isolation of a disease-producing bacterium from patients dying of meningo-encephalitis in 1935.

In 1931 Dr. Walter B. Cannon of the Harvard Medical school discovered a new hormone, sympathin, which is similar to adrenalin; in 1933 Cannon announced two forms of the hormone sympathin.

Dr. Robert Chambers, New York University, stated in 1937 that injection of grain cornstarch caused almost complete disappearance of cancerous growths in 45 percent of the experimental mice.

Patients with slowly knitting broken bones might be helped by the administration of hydrochloric acid, according to Drs. W. W. Cornell and Alice R. Bernheim, New York City, in 1936.

Dr. G. W. Crile reported in 1931 successfully treating diabetes, goiters, and stomach ulcers by severing the nerve connection between the brain and the adrenal glands.

Studies on deafness made by Dr. S. J. Crowe of the Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1931, showed that certain forms might be due to alteration in the rigidity of certain small bones in the inner ear and that pressure on a membrane in the inner ear might increase hearing.

The study of brain electrograms in 1936 by Drs. Hallowell Davis and Pauline A. Davis, Harvard Medical school, revealed that identical twins have identical patterns of brain activity.

In 1935 Dr. D. B. Dill, Harvard University, made experiments which led him to advise athletes to eat starches and sugars during the twenty-four hours before an athletic event.

In 1937 studies of water moccasin snake serum were made by Dr. R. L. Ditmars, assisted by Dr. C. R. Schroeder, New York Zoological Park, which confirmed the hypothesis that the drug was helpful in the treatment of epilepsy.

Colds and influenza were probably caused by filterable viruses, according to Dr. A. R. Dochez, Rockefeller Institute, in 1936.

In 1939 vitamin K was isolated and synthesized by Edward Adelbert Doisy; the biochemist won the 1943 Nobel Prize for his work.

In 1936 Drs. L. R. Dragstedt, John van Prohaska, and H. P. Harms, University of Chicago, reported that the new hormone lipocaic, obtained from the pancreas, might prove effective as a supplement to insulin in the treatment of diabetes.

Dr. George Draper pointed out in 1931 that until the exact mode of polio transmission was known, questions of isolation and quarantine presented great difficulties.

On 25 October 1930 Dr. Philip Drinker of Harvard Medical School reported successful treatment of acute respiratory failure in polio cases with the use of an artificial respirator.

René Jules Dubos, at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, isolated tyrocidine and gramicidine from swamp soil in 1939; effective against a broad spectrum of gram-positive bacteria, they were too toxic for human use.

In 1934 Dr. J. G. Dusser de Barenne, Yale University, described a method of destroying any number of consecutive layers of nerve cells in the cerebral cortex of the brain; the discovery was expected to aid in the study of which particular areas controlled various bodily activities.

In 1931 Dr. R. E. Dyer and associates at the United States Public Health Service, demonstrated that fleas, long suspected of transmitting typhus, were indeed the disease vectors.

Dr. H. L. Eder, Santa Barbara clinic, found in 1935 that the administration of iron would help lessen or prevent sunburn of persons who were abnormally sensitive to the sun.

Drs. C. A. Elsberg, Irwin Levy, and E. D. Brewer, Neurological Institute, New York, reported success in locating brain tumors in more than one hundred patients by testing their sensitivity to odors of coffee and the chemical citral in 1936.

In 1933 Drs. Conrad A. Elvehjem and W. S. Sherman, University of Wisconsin, announced that the role of copper in the treatment of pernicious anemia was to transform iron into hemoglobin.

Dr. Conrad A. Elvehjem and associates in the agricultural chemistry department of the University of Wisconsin discovered nicotinic acid as a cure for pellagra in 1937.

In 1936 an extract from the placenta was found to be helpful in treating patients with hemophilia, according to Drs. R. C. Ely and C. F. McKhann, Boston; the same extract also stopped bleeding after mastoid and adenoid operations.

On 15 March 1937 Bernard Fantus developed the first modern blood bank at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago.

In 1931 Dr. S. M. Feinberg announced the relief of asthma symptoms by raising patients' body temperatures through the passage of electrical currents through their bodies.

Dr. N. S. Ferry, Detroit, reported the successful use of a spinal meningitis antitoxin in 1935.

In 1936 Drs. Isidore Finkelman and Daniel Haffron, Elgin, Illinois, reported that their studies indicated that schizophrenia was the result of a disturbance of the hypothalamus in the forebrain.

Drs. Earl W. Flosdorf and Stuard Mudd of the University of Pennsylvania prepared the first dried human blood serum on 21 December 1933.

Drs. Earl W. Flosdorf and L. A. Chambers, University of Pennsylvania, advanced the theory in 1934 that high-pitched sound, which kills bacteria, may aid in producing immunity to disease; such sounds were found to catalyze chemical changes in egg albumen.

Dr. Walter Freeman, Washington, D.C., demonstrated a way of taking pictures of the living brain in 1934.

In 1935 Yale scientists John Farquhar Fulton and Carlyle F. Jacobsen observed that primates who had had a bilateral prefrontal lobotomy were calm, even when presented with difficult problems.

In 1933 Dr. Sidney Garfield created a prepaid medical plan to provide medical care for five hundred workers building a California aqueduct.

In 1938 Dr. Sidney Garfield established a prepaid group health plan for Grand Coulee Dam workers at the request of Henry J. Kaiser.

Daily administration of insulin to schizophrenics resulted in the recovery of sanity by 68 percent of the patients, according to Dr. Bernard Gluck, Ossining, New York, in 1936.

After treating dementia praecox patients with large doses of insulin in 1937, Dr. D. S. Griffin, Central State Hospital, Norman, Oklahoma, reported that eight of twenty-nine patients completely recovered their sanity and the others were improved.

Drs. Arthur Grollman and W. M. Firor, Johns Hopkins University, isolated crystals of the hormone of the adrenal gland cortex in 1933.

In 1938 Dr. Robert E. Gross surgically repaired a congenital heart defect.

Typhoid carriers might be rendered harmless by the application of X ray to the livers and gallbladders of the affected persons, according to Dr. Lars Gulbrandsen, University of Illinois, in 1935.

In 1936 Dr. O. J. Hagen, University of Minnesota, reported the identification of a new disease, terminal or regional ileitis, that had in the past probably been confused with cancer and intestinal diseases; the prognosis of ileitis was favorable if early diagnosis and treatment were obtained.

In 1930 Dr. F. S. Hammett found that sulfahydril compounds stimulated the rapid growth of tissues, healing stubborn wounds.

In 1938 Dr. Edith Haynes, Indiana University School of Medicine, reported that sores kept wet with a water solution of pectin healed rapidly.

Drs. H. E. Himwich and J. F. Fazikas, Yale University, found that sugar was a source of energy for the brain in 1935.

Subjecting rabies virus for a short time to ultraviolet rays allowed Dr. H. L. Hodes and his associates at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research to prepare an effective but nonvirulent type of vaccine in 1938.

The injection of meningococcus serum into the veins rather than into the spinal cord of meningitis patients reduced the death rate to 11.8 percent, according to Dr. A. L. Hoyne, Chicago, in 1936.

In 1931 Dr. W. C. Hueper developed a leukemia treatment serum from rabbit blood by injecting leukemic white blood cells raised in cultures from patients' blood into the blood of rabbits.

In 1933 Dr. A. S. Hyman announced an "artificial pacemaker" that had restored life to 60 percent of the patients whose hearts had stopped through shock, when used within five or ten minutes after the heart stopped beating.

A device to take infrared ray photographs that reveal early stages of heart trouble was made by Dr. A. S. Hyman and his associates at Beth David Hospital, New York, in 1935.

In 1932 Drs. Raphael Isaacs and C. C. Sturgis of the University of Michigan developed a chemically pure liver extract that could be administered intravenously in the treatment of pernicious anemia.

Dr. Benjamin Jablons, New York, reported in 1937, that tubulin, extracted from animal kidneys and used in the treatment of nephritic hypertension, had restored patients from uremic coma.

Dr. H. A. Kelly of Johns Hopkins University reported continued success with electrical surgery in treating cancer in 1930.

In 1937 Dr. J. F. Kelly, Creighton University, Omaha, reported that X-ray treatment of gangrene was successful in 100 percent of the cases when used within twenty-four hours of the discovery of the disease; the treatment effectively removed the necessity for amputations in most cases.

Dr. Garnet King, Los Angeles, reported a method of preheating to make ether nonexplosive and pneumonia-free in 1937.

In 1936 Dr. H. A Kipp, Pittsburgh, during an operation, measured the variations in bile pressure and found that laughing, coughing, and standing up affected the rate of flow of bile in human beings.

A mathematical formula that diagnosed at birth congenital hip deformities that would produce lameness was described by Drs. Samuel Kleinberg and H. S. Lieberman, New York City, in 1935; remedial measures were simple if early diagnosis was made.

In 1933 Drs. W. B. Kouwenhoven and D. R. Hooper of Johns Hopkins University found that the rhythm of a beating heart could be controlled by interrupted direct currents of electricity.

Dr. S. D. Kramer, Brooklyn, announced in 1934 that he had successfully immunized animals against polio and believed that the vaccine could be adopted for human beings.

In 1933 Dr. I. N. Kugelmass of New York City reported that giving babies a solution containing gelatin, dextrose, and salt instead of the usual feedings following birth reduced the loss of weight in the newborn to 2 percent or less.

Insertion of a minute glass tube into a single capillary in the bed of a man's nail allowed Dr. E. M. Landis, University of Pennsylvania, to measure the passage of fluid through the walls of these blood vessels in 1936; this method was expected to reveal knowledge of diseases of blood vessels and edema.

In 1936 John H. Lawrence of the University of California at Berkeley introduced the radiophosphorus treatment of leukemia.

In 1932 Dr. C. D. Leake and associates at the University of California announced their discovery of a new anesthetic through the purification of divinyl oxide; it was quicker, lasted longer, and was free from the effects of other anesthesias, such as ether and chloroform.

Dr. W. G. Lennox, Harvard Medical School, reported in 1938 that insulin shock treatments relieved mild forms of epilepsy.

In 1939 Philip Levine, Rufus Stetson, Alexander Wiener, and Karl Landsteiner discovered the Rh factor in human blood.

In 1931 Dr. Erlich Lindemann of the University of Iowa announced that small doses of sodium amytal were effective in getting even the most reserved patient to discuss his or her emotions.

The virus theory of cancer was supported in 1936 by experiments conducted by Dr. Baldwin Lucke, University of Pennsylvania, who found that frogs developed kidney cancers when inoculated with cell-free dried extracts made from cancerous frog kidneys.

In 1933 John Lundy an anesthesiologist, used an intravenous barbiturate, sodium pentothal, to anesthetize a patient before surgery.

Dr. Madge T. Macklin, reporting in 1936 on cancer in human beings, stated that members of the same family tended to have the same type of cancer, in the same organ, at about the same time of life.

In 1933 Dr. M. J. Mandelbaum, New York City, developed a tiny ultraviolet lamp that could be inserted in the bronchial tubes for treatment of tuberculosis.

Dr. David Marine and his associates, of Montefiore Hospital, New York, announced in 1933 that vitamin C offered a means of controlling goiter.

Information on sleep was obtained in 1935 by Dr. L. W. Max , New York University, from the electrical currents in the arms and fingers of sleeping deaf-mute persons.

In 1933 Drs. E. V. McCollum, H. D. Kruse, and Elsa Orent, Johns Hopkins University, found that when an animal got too little magnesium in its diet, it died as a result of the faulty use of the fats by the body.

Drs. EUice McDonald and E. F. Schroeder and their associates at the University of Pennsylvania reported in 1934 that phosphatase, an enzyme in the kidneys, apparently furnished immunity to cancer.

Dr. W. A. McGee announced success in using ether injections to treat whooping cough in 1930.

In 1936 Harvard researchers H. Houston Merritt and Tracy J. Putnam developed Dilantin (diphenylhydantoin) as the first anticonvulsive treatment for epilepsy since phenobarbitol.

Dr. Richard Miller developed a camera for photographing the interior of the human ear in 1931.

In 1931 Dr. R. A. Millikan of the California Institute of Technology announced the development of a million-volt X-ray tube for cancer research.

In 1933 Dr. Marjorie B. Moore of the Abbott Laboratories and Dr. Leon Unger of Northwestern University announced that the cause of hay fever was the protein rather than the sugary or starchy constituents in pollens.

In 1933 Thomas Hunt Morgan was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine "for his discoveries concerning the function of the chromosome in the transmission of heredity."

Dr. R. S. Morris, University of Cincinnati, reported that several conditions besides pernicious anemia were successfully treated with addisin, a newly discovered blood-forming hormone, in 1933.

In 1934 Dr. W. P. Murphy, Boston, discovered that liver extract was a cure for agranulocytosis, a fatal blood disease.

In 1935 Dr. W. P. Murphy, in collaboration with Dr. G. W. Clark, invented an inexpensive method of injecting liver extract directly into the muscle of pernicious anemia victims.

In 1938 Basil O'Connor founded the March of Dimes to finance research into poliomyelitis (also known as infantile paralysis or polio).

Dr. E. L. Opie and Dr. Jules Freund, Cornell University, reported in 1938 the discovery of a new vaccine for tuberculosis made from dead bacteria, which after two years' successful application to animals was to be tried on human beings.

A closed-plaster method for treating compound fractures used principles developed in 1937 by Lincoln, Nebraska, physician H. Winnett Orr to save Spanish Civil War fracture victims and reduce the need for amputation.

Dr. E. D. Osborne and Miss B. S. Hitchcock effectively treated ringworm infection with sodium hypochlorite in 1931.

Dr. R. L. Osborne, Columbia University, described a new local anesthetic, epicaine, which combined the action of novocaine and epinephrine without the tendency of the former to dilate peripheral blood vessels and of the latter to induce nervousness; the anesthetic was still in the experimental stage in 1937.

High blood pressure was normal for some persons and lowering the pressure was actually dangerous, according to studies made by Dr. O. H. P. Pepper, Philadelphia, in 1936.

In 1934 Dr. G. E. Pfahler, University of Pennsylvania, expressed the conviction that radioactivity could be used successfully on 75 percent of skin cancers.

Drs. Henry Pinkerton and G. M. Hass, Harvard University, investigating the filterable viruses in 1934, found evidence that the inclusion bodies might be compact clusters or colonies of minute organisms.

Dr. Bret Ratner, New York University, stated in 1936 that a fifteen-year study showed hay fever and other allergy diseases were not hereditary.

In 1938 Dr. E. T. Remmen' s report of the more than three hundred nurses and doctors at the Los Angeles Hospital attacked in 1934 and 1935 by a mysterious disease revealed that the malady was a new one, named polioencephalitis.

In 1931 Dr. H. B. Richardson and associates at Cornell University isolated a single tuberculosis germ and studied its entire life cycle.

Heart muscles, when injured in such diseases as coronary thrombosis, formed different patterns on electrocardiograms, according to Dr. Jane S. Robb and her associates, Syracuse University, who succeeded in identifying some patterns in 1935.

Dr. E. C. Rosenow, Mayo Clinic, reported in 1937 that a serum to prevent the crippling effect of infantile paralysis was being developed, based on the discovery that the virus causing the disease was a transformed streptococcus germ.

In 1936 tests of a childbirth anesthetic consisting of paraldehyde and benzyl alcohol developed by Drs. G. B. Roth and Howard Kane relieved mothers of pain and made it unnecessary to slap or hold the babies upside down at birth to start them breathing.

Dr. L. G. Rowntree, Philadelphia Institute for Medical Research, reported in 1935 that normal stature evidently depended upon the maintenance of a proper balance between the large thymus glands and the small pineal glands of growing children.

In 1937 Dr. L. G. Rowntree and his associates reported that mice fed wheat germ oil developed cancer; this was the first record of a cancerous growth produced by a vegetable substance.

In 1936 Drs. Albert B. Sabin and Peter K. Olitsky of the Rockefeller Institute grew the poliomyelitis virus in human brain cells.

Drs. Florence R. Sabin and A. L. Joyner, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, reported in 1938 progress in the development of a chemical treatment for tuberculosis.

Drs. W. A. Sawyer, S. F Kitchen, and Wray Lloyd of the Rockefeller Foundation announced the development of a new immunizing serum for the treatment of yellow fever in 1932.

In 1934 Dr. Franz C. Schmelkes, Belleville, New Jersey, reported a new germicide, which he called azochloramid, to be more effective than iodine or Dakin's solution.

Using a bacterium filtrate method. Dr. Gregory Schwartzman, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City, developed a new serum for typhoid fever in 1934.

Dr. Florence Seibert, University of Pennsylvania, produced the first pure tuberculin in 1934.

Drs. Atherton Seidell and M. I. Smith, U.S. Public Health service, succeeded in obtaining crystaline vitamin B₁, preventive of beriberi and other nerve disorders, in 1933.

Dr. Oliver B. Simon, Batavia, Illinois, successfully administered oxygen under the skin in 1934, a method that might eliminate the necessity of oxygen tents.

In 1933 Dr. Margaret C. Smith discovered specialized particles known as inclusion bodies in the tissues of encephalitis victims, which proved the disease was caused by a virus.

In 1938 Dr. Tom D. Spies proved that pellagra was a deficiency disease; he treated it with niacin.

In 1935 Rockefeller Institute biochemist Dr. Wendell Meredith Stanley demonstrated the proteinaceous nature of viruses, proving that they were not submicroscopic organisms as was commonly believed.

In 1936 Dr. Wendell Meredith Stanley reported that his studies with mosaic disease indicated that viruses were chemical rather than animal entities.

In 1933 Drs. W. W. Swingle, J. J. Pfiffner, and their associates at Princeton University announced that the function of the cortex of the adrenal gland was to maintain the blood supply at normal volume.

In 1937 Dr. Max Theiler developed a vaccine for yellow fever.

Dr. Walter Timme of the New York Neurological Institute announced in 1930 that a deficiency of calcium in the blood produces crossness, tiredness, and misbehavior.

In 1932 Dr. M. V. Veldee of the U.S. Public Health Service developed a new scarlet fever treatment by treating the scarlet fever antitoxin with formalin, then keeping it warm for two months; it lost its toxic quality but retained its immunizing effects.

In 1936 Miss Mary E. Warga, University of Pittsburgh, announced that identification of silicon in the lungs of silicosis patients was possible through the use of a spectroscope.

In 1933 Drs. R. M. Waters and E. A. Rovenstine, Wisconsin General Hospital, developed an oxygen tube to supplant tents in oxygen administration.

Drs. L. T. Webster and G. L. Fite, Rockefeller Institute, developed a serum in 1934 that immunized mice from encephalitis, sometimes called sleeping sickness.

Drs. Soma Weiss and R. W. Wilkins, Boston, stated in 1937 that they had discovered a previously unrecognized heart disease induced by malnutrition; vitamin B was said to be specific in treating the condition.

In 1933 Dr. D. B. Wells announced a method of treating extensive burns by a three-hour bath in tannic acid.

The 1930 prize award for Popular Science Monthly went to Dr. George H. Whipple of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dr. George R. Minot of Harvard Medical School for their work which led to the effective treatment of pernicious anemia by feeding liver to victims; as a result of their work, this formerly fatal disease now had an adequate and specialized treatment.

In 1934 Dr. G. H. Whipple, Rochester, New York, and Drs. G. R. Minot and W. P. Murphy, Boston, shared the Nobel Prize in medicine for a their discoveries on liver therapy in the anemias."

In 1935 Dr. L. R. Whitaker, Memorial Hospital, Boston, devised an "electric knife" that would remove large sections of the intestine and join parts without opening the intestine itself; the method was also applicable to gallbladder and other abdominal operations.

Dr. L. R. Williams of the National Tuberculosis Association reported in 1930 that from half to nine-tenths of the American population carried tuberculosis germs in their bodies and urged the entire population to have annual X-ray exams to help prevent the disease.

In 1936 Robert R. Williams synthesized thiamine (vitamin B₁).

Dr. M. M. Wintrobe, Johns Hopkins Hospital, reported in 1938 that powdered yeast proved effective in the treatment for patients with pernicious anemia.

Drs. R. C. Wise and O. H. Schettler reported in 1938 that three capsules a day of carotene in oil relieved eye fatigue for industrial workers and that vitamin A was the helpful agent.

In 1933 Dr. Hans Zinsser and associates of Harvard University, working under the auspices of the U. S. Public Health Service, developed a vaccine and a serum against typhoid fever.