Welch, sedgwick, and the hopkins model of hygiene

Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine

Volumn 72, Issue 5, 1999, Pages 313-320

  Benson, Keith R ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

HISTORY; HUMAN; HYGIENE; MEDICAL SCHOOL; PUBLIC HEALTH; REVIEW; UNITED STATES;

BALTIMORE; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HUMANS; HYGIENE; PUBLIC HEALTH; SCHOOLS, MEDICAL;

EID: 0033187099     PISSN: 00440086     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (28)

1. While I would certainly like to take credit for the title of the paper, it rightly belongs to the organizers of the symposium of the American Society of Microbiology, Rivers Singleton and William Summers, who invited me to participate by requesting a paper on this precise topic.
2. Hugh Hawkins, Pioneer: A History of the Johns Hopkins University, 1874-1889. Ithaca: Cornell University Press; 1960. For more information concerning the biology department, see the articles in the special section of the American Zoologist dedicated to the history of the department in Baltimore, Volume 27,1987.
3. There are numerous biographical sources on Welch but, remarkably, few detail his considerable contributions in public health and bacteriology. Nevertheless, the widescope of his erudition is clear from the many treatments of his life. See Brieger, G.H. Welch, William Henry. In: Gillispie, C.C., ed. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York: Charles Scribners' Sons; 1971, Volume 16, pp. 248-250;
4. Cohen, B. Comments on the relation of Dr. Welch to the rise of microbiology in America. Bull. Hist. Med. 24:319-324, 1950;
5. Flexner, S. William Henry Welch (1850-1934). Nat. Acad. Sci. Biogr. Mem. 22:215-222, 1943;
6. Flexner, S. and Flexner, J.T. William Henry Welch and the Heroic Age of American Medicine. New York: Viking Press; 1941;
7. Freeburg, V.O. ed. William Henry Welch at Eighty. New York: Milbank Memorial Fund; 1930.
8. Garrison, F.H. In Memoriam: William Henry Welch (1850-1934). Sei. Month. 38:579-582, 1934;
9. Shyrock, R.H. Dr. Welch and medical history. Bull. Hist. Med. 24:325-332, 1950 (the entire volume of this Bulletin is dedicated to Welch);
10. Temkin, O. The European background of young Dr. Welch. Bull. Hist. Med. 24:308-318, 1950.
11. Owsei Temkin details Welch's experiences in Europe in his article, "The European Background. . ."
12. Freeburg, V.O. William Henry Welch; p. 39.
13. Flexner, S. William Henry Welch; p. 218.
14. Freeburg, V.O. William Henry Welch; p. 39.
15. Given his critical position in the American sanitation movement, it is surprising that there is little contemporary biographical information about Sedgwick. Among the historical documents, see Anon., "Sedgwick, William Thompson," The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. New York: James T. White, Co. 13:290-91,1906;
16. J.A.T., "Sedgwick, William Thompson," Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribners' Sons; 16:552-53, 1935;
17. Jordan, E.G., Whipple, G.G. and Winslow, C.-E.A. A Pioneer of Public Health: William Tlwmpson Sedgwick. New Haven: Yale University Press; 1924;
18. Tobey, J.A. Riders of the Plague: The Story of the Conquest of Disease. New York: Charles Scribners' Sons; 1930;
19. Whipple, G.G. The public health work of Professor Sedgwick. Science 53:171-174, 1921;
20. and Wilson, E.B. William Thompson Sedgwick (1855-1921. Proceed. Amer. Acad. Arts. 57:512-16, 1922.
21. Jordan, E.G., Whipple, G.C., Winslow, C.-E.A. A Pioneer of Public Health: William Thompson Sedgwick. New Haven, Yale University Press; 1924, Appendix.
22. Although I have not seen the documentation to support my hypothesis, I am sure that Sedgwick played an important role in convincing Rockefeller to fund public health projects, beginning with the work in the Southern states in the United States attacking hookworm and typhoid. Certainly the fact that Sedgwick's time in Maine with Rockefeller and Rockefeller's subsequent funding of public health measures aimed at sanitation, is compelling circumstantial evidence.
23. Benson, K.R. From Museum Research to Laboratory Research: The Transformation of Natural History into Academic Biology. In: Rainger, R., Benson, K.R., and Maienschein, J., eds. The American Development of Biology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press; 1988, pp 49-83.
24. Jordan, E.G., Whipple, G.G., Winslow, C.-E.A. A Pioneer of Public Health: William Thompson Sedgwick. New Haven, Yale University Press; 1924, p. 48.
25. Freeburg, V.O. William Henry Welch, p. 116.
26. This designation was also used in the special edition of the American Zoologist from 1987. In addition, a similar argument for a "Hopkins" approach to science is in: Maeinschein, J. In: Transforming Traditions: American Biology, 1880-1915. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press; 1991.
27. Sedgwick, W.T. and Tyler, H.W. A Short History of Science. New York: Macmillan; 1917.
28. As mentioned earlier in this paper, it a remarkable coincidence that neither Welch or Sedgwick has received a recent historical assessment of their work in public health or sanitation. This is made all the more remarkable since both men figured so prominently in the formation of professional public health programs in the United States and since Sedgwick published the initial American text in sanitary science (Principles of Sanitary Science, 1902). Both names are mentioned in overviews of public health, in particular the work of George Rosen and John Duffy; nevertheless, both beg for more historical attention.