American physiologist and educator (1840?1911)
Henry Pickering Bowditch
(April 4, 1840 ? March 13, 1911) was an American soldier, physician, physiologist, and
dean
of the
Harvard Medical School
.
[1]
[2]
Following his teacher
Carl Ludwig
, he promoted the training of medical practitioners in a context of
physiological
research. His teaching career at Harvard spanned 35 years. He is known for
Bowditch effect
.
Early life
[
edit
]
Henry P. Bowditch was born to the Massachusetts Bowditch family, noted for the mathematician
Nathaniel Bowditch
, his grandfather, and the archaeologist
Charles Pickering Bowditch
, his brother. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Jonathan Ingersoll Bowditch and Lucy Orne Nichols Bowditch.
[3]
In 1861, he graduated from
Harvard College
, and then entered Harvard’s
Lawrence Scientific School
. His studies there were interrupted by his service in the
Union Army
during the
American Civil War
, where he rose to the rank of
major
in the
Fifth Massachusetts Colored Cavalry Regiment
.
[2]
After graduation from Harvard Medical School in 1868, he went to
Paris
to study with
Claude Bernard
. In Bernard’s lab he worked alongside
Louis-Antoine Ranvier
, later known for neuroanatomy, and
Etienne-Jules Marey
who promoted the use of photography to capture physiological dynamics. According to
Walter Bradford Cannon
, when in Paris, Bowditch joined with fellow Bostonians
John Collins Warren Jr.
,
William James
, and Charles Emerson for frog-hunting parties.
Bowditch continued his European studies in Bonn with
Wilhelm Kuhne
and
Max Schultze
. Ultimately he proceeded to Leipzig where
Carl Ludwig
was conducting the program that Bowditch would emulate at Harvard. Bowditch impressed Ludwig by constructing an improvement on the
kymograph
then in use. His studies in Leipzig brought him into contact with, among others,
Ray Lankester
,
Angelo Mosso
,
Hugo Kronecker
and
Carl von Voit
.
Career
[
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]
Bowditch was appointed assistant professor of physiology at Harvard in 1871.
[2]
While still in Germany, he purchased European materials to support the investigative training program he planned. And dramatically, on 9 September 1871, just days before sailing for Boston, he married Selma Knuth of Leipzig. The Bowditch laboratory at Harvard, the first physiological laboratory in the United States,
[1]
began modestly in attic rooms.
In 1875?1876, Bowditch,
William James
, Charles Pickering Putnam, and
James Jackson Putnam
founded the
Putnam Camp
at
St. Huberts
,
Essex County, New York
.
[4]
Bowditch's career at Harvard was parallel to that of
William James
who instituted his program of
experimental psychology
in 1875. Bowditch and James represented the
New Education
espoused by
Charles William Eliot
, Harvard's President. In 1876 Bowditch was promoted to full professor.
[2]
In 1887 he co-founded and was the first president of the
American Physiological Society
.
[5]
At Harvard he rose to the position of dean of the medical school, serving from 1883 to 1893.
[1]
In 1903 he was honoured with the George Higginson chair. In 1904, Bowditch was elected as a member of the
American Philosophical Society
.
[6]
After 35 years teaching for Harvard, he retired in 1906, and died in Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts in 1913.
[1]
His students included
Walter Bradford Cannon
,
Charles Sedgwick Minot
and
G. Stanley Hall
.
Manfred Bowditch, Henry's son, gave a personal description of his father. Bowditch did much experimentation in a cottage at an Adirondack camp at the head of
Keene Valley
which bore his name.
[7]
There, with a well-equipped workshop the son witnessed considerable "inventiveness and manual skill" that Henry also applied in the physiology lab.
[8]
Bowditch was granted honorary degrees from five universities: Cambridge, Edinburgh, Toronto, Pennsylvania, and Harvard. Since 1956 the
American Physiological Society
has selected a distinguished physiologist to deliver the "Henry Pickering Bowditch Award Lecture".
[9]
Research
[
edit
]
Henry Pickering Bowditch was known for his physiological work on
cardiac
contraction
and
knee jerk
.
[10]
[11]
[12]
He also developed an interest in
anthropometry
, and showed that nutrition and environmental factors contribute to physiological development.
Bowditch can be seen as a link between the
milieu interieur
of Claude Bernard, his teacher, and
homeostasis
as developed by his student Walter Cannon.
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
Barnhart, Clarence L., ed. (1954). "Bowditch, Henry Pickering".
New Century Cyclopedia of Names, Volume One, A – Emin Pasha
. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. p. 606.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Herringshaw, Thomas William, ed. (1909). "Bowditch, Henry Pickering".
Herringshaw's national library of American biography, Volume 1, Aaron?Clason
. Chicago, Illinois: American Publishers' Association. p.
385
.
- ^
Kelly, Howard A.; Burrage, Walter L. (eds.).
"Bowditch, Henry Pickering"
.
American Medical Biographies
. Baltimore: The Norman, Remington Company.
- ^
"Cultural Resource Information System (CRIS)"
.
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
. Archived from
the original
(Searchable database)
on July 1, 2015
. Retrieved
February 1,
2016
.
Note:
This includes
Rachel D. Carley (January 2012).
"National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Putnam Camp"
(PDF)
. Retrieved
February 1,
2016
.
and
Accompanying photographs
- ^
"APS Founders"
.
American Physiological Society
. Archived from
the original
on March 26, 2015
. Retrieved
March 22,
2015
.
Three of them, Henry Pickering Bowditch, S. Weir Mitchell, and Henry Newell Martin, were signers of the original letter of invitation to attend the organizational meeting.
- ^
"APS Member History"
.
search.amphilsoc.org
. Retrieved
April 2,
2021
.
- ^
Bryan, John M. (2005).
Maine Cottages: Fred L. Savage and the Architecture of Mount Desert
. Springer Verlag. p.
48
.
- ^
Manfred Bowditch (1978)
Henry Parker Bowditch: an intimate memoir
, from American Physiological Society
- ^
Recipients of the Henry Pickering Bowditch Award Lectureship
Archived
2017-07-20 at the
Wayback Machine
from the
American Physiological Society
.
- ^
Ulijaszek, Stanley J.; Johnston, Francis E.; Preece, M. A. (1998).
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Growth and Development
. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
0-521-56046-2
.
- ^
Short biography, bibliography, and links on digitized sources
in the
Virtual Laboratory
of the
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
- ^
Howe, Mark A. (1968).
Later Years of the Saturday Club 1870-1920
. Ayer Publishing.
ISBN
0-8369-0548-2
.
References
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External links
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