- Early American neurosurgeon, pathologist, writer and draftsman.
- Pioneer of brain surgery.
Biography
Harvey Williams Cushing was born 8 April 1869 in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States to Henry Kirke Cushing (1827-1910) and Elizabeth Mary Williams (1828-1903) and died 8 October 1939 New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States of unspecified causes. He married Katherine Stone Crowell (1869-1949) 6 October 1902 in Baltimore, Baltimore County, Maryland.
Harvey Williams Cushing was an American neurosurgeon, pathologist, writer, and draftsman. A pioneer of brain surgery, he was the first exclusive neurosurgeon and the first person to describe Cushing's disease. He wrote a biography of William Osler in three volumes.
Harvey Cushing was born in Cleveland, Ohio. His parents were Elizabeth Maria "Betsey M." Williams and Henry Kirke Cushing,[1] a physician whose ancestors came to Hingham, Massachusetts, as Puritans in the 17th century.[2] Harvey was the youngest of ten children.
Education
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 towards a career in medical surgery. The school's manual dexterity training program also contributed to Cushing's future success as a surgeon.[3]
He graduated with an A.B. degree in 1891 from Yale University, where he was a member of Scroll and Key and Delta Kappa Epsilon (Phi chapter). He studied medicine at Harvard Medical School and earned his medical degree in 1895. Cushing completed his internship at Massachusetts General Hospital and then did a residency in surgery under the guidance of pioneering surgeon William Stewart Halsted at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
Career
After doing exceptional cerebral surgery abroad under Kocher at Bern and Sherrington at Liverpool, he began private practice in Baltimore. During his time with Kocher, he first encountered the Cushing reflex which describes the relationship between blood pressure and intracranial pressure. At the age of 32, he was made associate professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and was placed in full charge of cases of surgery of the central nervous system. Yet he found time to write numerous monographs on surgery of the brain and spinal column and to make important contributions to bacteriology. He made (with Kocher) 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 local anaesthesia, and his paper on its use in hernia gave him a European reputation. In 1911, he was appointed surgeon-in-chief at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.[4] He became a professor of surgery at the Harvard Medical School starting in 1912.[5] In 1913, he was made an honorary F.R.C.S. (London). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1914.[6] In 1915, before the Clinical Congress of Surgeons in Boston, he showed the possibility of influencing stature by operating on the pituitary gland.[4] In 1924, Cushing was awarded the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh.
First World War
Shortly after the entry of the United States into the First World War, Cushing was commissioned as a major in the U.S. Army Medical Corps on May 5, 1917. He was director of the U.S. base hospital attached to the British Expeditionary Force in France. Cushing also served as the head of a surgical unit in a French military hospital outside of Paris. During his time at the French military hospital, Cushing experimented with the use of electromagnets to extract fragments of metallic missile shrapnel that were lodged severely within the brain.[7] He was mentioned in a dispatch by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig in November 1917.[8] [9]
On June 6, 1918, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was assigned as senior consultant in neurological surgery for the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe. He attained the rank of colonel (O-6) on October 23, 1918.[4] In that capacity, he treated Lieutenant Edward Revere Osler, who was fatally wounded during the third battle of Ypres. Lieutenant Osler was the son of Sir William Osler.[10]
Cushing returned to the United States in February 1919 and was discharged on April 9 of the same year. In recognition of his service during the war, Cushing was invested as a Companion of the Bath by the British government.[8] In 1923 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by the U.S. Army.[11]
Later career
Cushing authored the Pulitzer prize-winning biography, Life of Sir William Osler (London: Oxford University Press, 1925).[12]
From 1933 to 1937, when he retired, he worked at the Yale School of Medicine as Sterling Professor of Neurology.[5]
Marriage and Family
He married Katharine Stone Crowell (1870–1949), a Cleveland childhood friend, on June 10, 1902. They had five children:
- William Harvey Cushing (1903-1926) - died in an automobile accident while a student at Yale University [13]
- Mary Benedict Cushing (1906-1978), who married Vincent Astor and later James Whitney Fosburgh;[14]
- Betsey Maria Cushing (1908-1998), who married James Roosevelt and later John Hay Whitney;[15]
- Henry Kirke Cushing (1910-1963), who married Marjorie Estabrook in 1936.[16]
- Barbara Cushing (1915-1978), the socialite wife of Stanley Grafton Mortimer and later William S. Paley.[17]
Children
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| William Harvey Cushing (1903-1926) | |||
| Mary Benedict Cushing (1906-1978) | 27 January 1906 Baltimore, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States | 6 November 1978 Manhattan, New York County, New York, United States | William Vincent Astor (1891-1959) Joseph Whitney Fosburgh (1910-1978) |
| Betsey Maria Cushing (1908-1998) | |||
| Henry Kirke Cushing (1910-1963) | |||
| Barbara Cushing (1915-1978) | |||
Siblings
Residences
See Also
- wikipedia:en:Harvey Cushing - Wikipedia
- Cushing Family of Hingham - Boston Brahmin
- Harvey Cushing
- Cushing in Cuyahoga County, Ohio
- Cushing in Baltimore County, Maryland
- Cushing in New Haven County, Connecticut
References
- ^ https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf
- ^ Lincoln, Solomon Jr.; Gill, Caleb Jr. History of the Town of Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Farmer and Brown, Hingham, 1827.
- ^ Fulton, John. Harvey Cushing A Biography. Springfield, Illinois. 1946. Print.
- ^ a b c
"Cushing, Harvey". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). 1922.
- ^ a b Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedbrainman - ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter C". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterC.pdf. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
- ^ (2012) "Harvey Cushing: Cushing's disease". Journal of Perioperative Practice 22 (9): 298–9. DOI:10.1177/175045891202200906. PMID 23101174.
- ^ a b Harvard's Military Record during the World War. Harvard Alumni Association. 1921. pg. 238.
- ^ Template:Lives of WWI
- ^ Starling, P H (March 2003). "The case of Edward Revere Osler". Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps 149 (1): 27–29. DOI:10.1136/jramc-149-01-05. PMID 12743923.
- ^ Decorations of the United States Army, 1862–1926. War Department. Office of the Adjutant General. Washington. 1927. pg. 693.
- ^ "The Pulitzer Prizes". https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/harvey-cushing.
- ^ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/78105369/william-harvey-cushing
- ^ "Mary Fosburgh, 72. One of Cushing Sisters and a Leader in Arts. Raised Funds During War". The New York Times. November 8, 1978. https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/06/archives/mary-fosburgh-72-one-of-cushing-sisters-and-a-leader-in-arts-raised.html. Retrieved March 21, 2010. "Mary Gushing Fosburgh, the eldest of the socially prominent Cushing sisters and widow of the painter James Whitney Fosburgh, died Saturday at her home in Manhattan after a long illness. She was 72 years old and lived at 32 East 64th Street."
- ^ Nemy, Enid (March 26, 1998). "Betsey Cushing Whitney Is Dead at 89". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/26/nyregion/betsey-cushing-whitney-is-dead-at-89.html?pagewanted=1. Retrieved March 21, 2010. "Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney, the widow of John Hay (Jock) Whitney, the first wife of James Roosevelt and the last of the three glamorous Cushing sisters of Boston, died yesterday at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. She was 89."
- ^ "NUPTIALS PLANNED BY MISS ESTABROOK; Her Marriage to Henry Kirke Cushing Will Take Place in Marion, Mass., Church. CEREMONY TO BE MAY 30 Mrs. James Roosevelt, Sister of the Bridegroom-Elect, Will Be Matron of Honor.". The New York Times. April 15, 1936. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1936/04/15/85305181.pdf. Retrieved June 26, 2018.
- ^ Nemy, Enid (July 7, 1978). "Barbara Cushing Paley Dies at 63; Style Pace-Setter in Three Decades; Symbol of Taste". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/07/archives/barbara-cushing-paley-dies-at-63-style-pacesetter-in-three-decades.html. Retrieved March 21, 2010. "Barbara Cushing Paley, the wife of William S. Paley, the chairman of the board of the Columbia Broadcasting System, died of cancer at their apartment in New York City yesterday after a long illness. She was 63 years old."