FLEXNER, SIMON, and JAMES THOMAS FLEXNER. William Henry Welch and the Heroic Age of American Medicine. Pp. x, 539. New York: The Viking Press, 1941. $3.75

• Published date: 01 May 1942
• Date: 01 May 1942
• Author: Henry E. Sigerist
• DOI: 10.1177/000271624222100179
• Subject Matter: Articles

237

it

did

not

come

into

existence

as

a

perfect

piece

of

legislation.

It

has

limitations,

of

course,

not

only

in

the

inevitable

omission

of

certain

important

services

but

in

the

necessarily

experimental

character

of

some

of

the

attempts

to

provide

new

and

difficult

services

on

a

nationwide

scale

under

our

Federal

system.

That

is,

we

must

acknowl-

edge

that

there

are

both

sins

of

omission

and

sins

of

commission.&dquo;

The

last

series

of

papers,

dealing

with

administrative

problems

in

the

public

wel-

fare

services,

will

be

of

particular

interest

to

administrators.

They

include

her

ad-

dress

as

president

of

the

National

Confer-

ence

of

Social

Work

on

&dquo;The

Public

Pro-

tection

of

Children-A

First

Part

of

the

Public

Welfare

Program&dquo;;

another

address

on

&dquo;Developing

and

Protecting

Professional

Standards

in

Public

Welfare

Work,&dquo;

given

at

the

first

meeting

of

the

American

Public

Welfare

Association;

and

other

papers

on

administrative

problems.

Taken

as

a

whole,

this

book

is

a

very

valuable

contribution

to

the

field

of

public

welfare.

MARIETTA

STEVENSON

American

Public

Welfare

Association,

Chicago,

Ill.

FLEXNER,

SIMON,

and

JAMES

THOMAS

FLEXNER.

William

Henry

Welch

and

the

Heroic

Age

of

American

Medicine.

Pp.

x,

539.

New

York:

The

Viking

Press,

1941.

$3.75.

When

Dr.

William

H.

Welch

was

gradu-

ated

from

the

College

of

Physicians

and

Surgeons

in

New

York

in

February

1875,

American

medicine

did

not

count

in

the

world.

A

few

great

contributions

had

come

from

America,

some

new

operations,

and,

first

of

all,

ether

anesthesia;

but

otherwise,

American

medicine

was

still

undeveloped.

There

were

many

schools,

and

most

of

them

were

poor.

Facilities

for

research

were

nonexistent.

The

centers

of

medical

prog-

ress

were

in

Europe,

where

Pasteur

in

France

and

Ludwig

and

Virchow

in

Ger-

many

were

at

the

height

of

their

careers.

When

Dr.

Welch

died

on

April

30,

1934,

American

medicine

was

holding

a

leading

position

in

the

world. Of

this

tremendous

development

Dr.

Welch

was

one

of

the

chief

engineers,

and

the

history

of

his

life

and

work

is

therefore

at

the

same

time

the

history

of

the

heroic

age

of

American

medi-

cine.

Welch

came

from

a

New

England

family.

Son

and

grandson

of

physicians,

he

was

born

in

Norfolk,

Connecticut

in

1850.

He

graduated

from

Yale

in

1870

and

for

a

while

thought

of

breaking

the

family

tradi-

tion

by

devoting

himself

entirely

to

the

classics.

He

spent

a

year

teaching

school

in

Norwich,

New

York,

hoping

and

waiting

for

an

appointment

in

Greek

at

Yale.

But

then,

when

the

appointment

did

not

come

forth,

he

gave

up

his

resistance

to

the

family

tradition,

served

his

father

as

an

apprentice,

and

in

further

preparation

for

medical

school

attended

courses

in

chem-

istry

at

the

Sheffield

School,

the

scientific

branch

of

Yale.

Even

as

a

medical

stu-

dent

in

New

York,

Welch

displayed

an

unu-

sual

interest

in

science.

He

worked

as

a

prosector

in

anatomy

and

won

a

prize

for

an

essay

on

goiter.

In

1876

Welch

went

to

Europe,

and

the

two

years

he

spent

in

Germany

were

the

decisive

years

of

his

life,

not

only

because

he

learned

a

great

deal

in

the

laboratories

of

Ludwig,

Cohnheim,

and

von

Reckling-

hausen,

but

because

he

returned

from

his

trip

abroad

with

the

iron

determination

to

devote

his

life

to

scientific

research.

Hun-

dreds

of

American

doctors

had

gone

to

Eu-

rope

throughout

the

century,

had

studied

with

the

great

masters,

but

back

home

they

became

practitioners

as

a

matter

of

course.

Their

superior

knowledge

made

them

bet-

ter

physicians

and

swelled

their

income.

Not

so

with

Welch.

When

he

returned

to

New

York

in

1878

he

had

to

practice

for

a

living,

to

be

sure,

but

he

put

all

his

energy

into

building

up

a

laboratory

at

Bellevue

Hospital

where

he

could

continue

his

re-

searches

and

give

microscopical

courses

to

students.

Those

were

six

difficult

years,

years

of

struggle

against

many

obstacles.

A

new

period

began

in

Welch’s

life

in

1884

when

he

was

appointed

professor

of

pathology

at

the

Johns

Hopkins

University.

In

the

reorganization

of

American

medicine,

no

institution

has

played

a

more

significant

part

than

Johns

Hopkins.

Founded

in

1876,

the

University

under

the

leadership

of

its

first

president,

Gilman,

soon

became

a

center

of

research

in

the

humanities

and

in

science.

Welch’s

appointment

preceded

at SAGE PUBLICATIONS on December 4, 2012ann.sagepub.comDownloaded from