erans. It would seem appropriate in this Halsted centen¬ nial year to urge the medical profession at large to interest themselves in the preservation of the residency training program. Some say, and I think with truth, that the stature of Halsted has grown with the passing of years. Perhaps the same might be said of most truly great persons. It should not be thought, however, that he was not appreciated in his lifetime. He was an honorary fellow of many surgical organizations, including the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Professor Leriche of France published a beautiful tribute to him in 1914, eight years before his death. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the only other surgeon in this organization at the time being Harvey Cushing. The National Dental As¬ sociation of America gave him a gold medal in recogni¬ tion of his work on neuroregional anesthesia. He must have been very happy in his accomplishments when his life ended in 1922. The president of the Johns Hopkins University, Frank J. Goodnow, stated at that time, "It is only characteristic of the man that when he died he not only left us the lustre of a name that will always be hon¬ ored by Hopkins men, but as well made the University his residuary legatee in order to enable it more ade¬ quately to carry on the work which he had so auspiciously begun, namely, research in surgery." I am sure Halsted would be pleased that recipients of the Halsted Fellow¬ ship have made significant contributions to surgery.In closing I should like to quote from two tributes to Halsted that appeared shortly after his death. The first is by his brilliant pupil, Harvey Cushing, who wrote, "A man of unique personality, shy, something of a recluse, fastidious in his tastes and in his friendships, an aristocrat in his breeding, scholarly in his habits, the victim for many years of indifferent health, he nevertheless was one of the few American surgeons who may be considered to have established a school of surgery, comparable, in a sense, to the school of Billroth in Vienna. ... He had that rare form of imagination which sees problems, and the technical ability combined with persistence which en¬ abled him to attack them with promise of a successful issue." The second tribute is by his close friend, the be¬ loved Dr. Rudolph Matas, who said, "Modest, self re¬ pressed, shunning the limelight of publicity, he never ob¬ truded his personality or exploited his deeds and only referred to himself in the most impersonal way, allowing the facts always to speak for themselves. . . . Though shy and reserved and undemonstrative, he delighted in the company of his pupils, immediate associates and a few chosen friends. With these he was expansive, and the glow and warmth of his friendship rapidly dissipated whatever restraint might first have been imposed by his punctilious politeness and adhesion to conventional formalities. To those who were privileged to bask in the sunshine of his friendship, the true nature of the man was revealed in all its splendor."Were Halsted ...
Previous publications .from this laboratory ( 1, 2) have reported that rheumatoid arthritis patients who were treated with ACTH (adrenocorticotrophic hormone) and cortisone (17-hydroxy-11-dehydrocorticosterone) exhibited changes in the urinary excretion of certain amino acids. Similar results were found to occur during remission induced by pregnancy (3, 4), and one rheumatoid arthritis patient in remission caused by jaundice showed changes even more striking (5). Significant differences have been reported to exist in plasma concentrations of certain "free" amino acids in untreated rheumatoid arthritis patients and in normal individuals (6) . It was considered important, therefore, to determine whether in this disease changes occur in plasma concentrations concomitantly with remission induced by ACTH therapy and also to establish the effect of ACTH on plasma concentrations and urinary excretion of amino acids in normal adults.Results for six apparent "free" amino acids in the urinary excretion of normal adults and for seven "free" amino acids in plasma of normal individuals treated with ACTH are compared with those from rheumatoid arthritis patients similarly treated. METHODSThe normal control group consisted of four male and four female university students. Immediately before the experiment each student was subjected to a complete physical examination and absence of any disease or obvious metabolic disorder was established. The students ' This work was supported in part by grants from the United States Public Health Service and the Fair Foundation. ACTH was provided by the Armour Laboratories.2A preliminary report of this material was presented before the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Cleveland, Ohio, April 1951.were not hospitalized but were kept on a closely supervised diet of adequate caloric and vitamin C intake and one which supplied one gram of protein per kilogram of body weight. The source of protein was the same for all subjects and to that extent the amino acid intake was controlled. Following a three-day control period on the diet, 40 mg. of ACTH were administered intramuscularly in three divided doses each day for seven days. Thirtyfive patients were chosen on the basis of an unquestionable diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis and had been under treatment by the investigators for periods ranging from six months to 15 years. They were hospitalized for observation and study throughout the experiment and were maintained on the same controlled diet as that used for the normal adult group. ACTH was administered intramuscularly in variable dosage of from 40 to 60 mg. daily except for one patient who received a much larger dose. It was determined conclusively that the size of the dose had no measurable effect on the plasma levels of the amino acids assayed. In an effort to accelerate or prolong the favorable effects of ACTH therapy some patients included in this study received supplementary medication. During the control period and/or through the treatment period various agents suc...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.