Historical perspective

By Thomas F. Baskett, MB, Susan K. Rishworth, MLS, MA, and PatriciaC. Want, ALA A

lmost

150 years after the event,

Hart and Barbour,

aving survived the trip from Ed-

inburgh,

UK, to Baltimore

sojourn

in the rubbish

Hopkins

Hospital,

plaque,

and a brief

the Department

bin at Johns

a plaster cast (Fig-

listed on the

were prominent

members

of Obstetrics

of and

Gynaecology

in Edinburgh

sity. Together

they wrote the Manual

Univer-

ure 1) of the head of the first infant

of Gynaeco60g,4 which received world-

delivered

wide recognition,

under

ether

anesthesia

James Young Simpson,

by

MD, of Edin-

burgh has found a home in the History

on International on August

of the Committee

son, MD,

of Ann Arbor,

presented

John-

Michigan,

the cast to Warren

MD, and Susan Rishworth, brarian/archivist, History

logical Society. Perhaps Kelly was influential in his nomination for this honor.

Affairs at the College

16, 1996, Timothy

From

Pearse,

for display

the cast to Williams

in the Ironically,

Library of the College. in honor

of the late J. Donald

Woodruff,

MD,

of Baltimore

had

it to

Johnson

who

given

when the latter became chief

of obstetrics

at Johns Hopkins

Hospi-

disagreed grating

Kelly

and

Williams

on the philosophy obstetrics

and

of inte-

gynecology.

had rescued the cast from the rubbish bin

set sought

to separate

gynecology.

He

Women’s

Clinic at the Johns Hopkins was demolished erected John

in 1979. This clinic,

in 1923, Whitridge

tempt

Hospital

was conceived Williams

to replicate

system in Austria and Germany.

Wil-

and gynecology.’

The cast is mounted tive

plastic

plaque

and

the clinics, which integrated

clinical obstetrics case

reads,

child delivered

and

in a protecthe

“Cast of head under

attached of first

anaesthesia

Sir J. Y. Simpson-presented Howard bour,

A. Kelly by Hart and

Whitridge

1899 when

by the Williams,

former March

by to

and Barto John 1926.”

Johns

reluctant obstetrics

achieved

he appointed

as professor and head obstetrics section.

the Frauenklinik

liams had visited these countries admired

by

in an at-

to and

this

in

Williams

of a separate

Kelly resigned from the chair at Hopkins in 1919. Williams

Although

previously

used in 1844 by Crawford

and anesthesia.

Long, MD,

to remove a small cyst from a patient’s neck, ether anesthesia

was first admin-

istered for a formal hospital

operation

by a dentist, William Morton, on October 16, 1846.7 The operation, excision of a tumor of the neck, was carried out by surgeon John Warren,

tried to get the hospital board to com-

MD,

bine the departments gynecology under

Hospital of Boston.* Simpson was the first to use ether

However, necology

of obstetrics and his leadership.

the board refused,

and gy-

became a division of surgery

under

the

Cullen,

MD. The departments

headship

of

Thomas of ob-

stetrics and gynecology remained separate until 29 years after Williams’ death.2 Kelly made the first of several trips to Europe in 1886. It is recorded that on his visit to Edinburgh

From the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dalhousie University, Halifaw, Nova Scotia, Canada; ACOG, Washington, D. C.; and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, London, United Kingdom.

are not re-

The clinical events leading to the

and from the out-

original

this presentation

production of the cast represent one of the landmark events in obstetrics

was

the

1926.

and Uni-

obstetrics

when

rounding corded.

in March

the reason and events sur-

foun-

in 1889,

Woodruff

However,

Kelly, who had been appointed

practice

Apparently,

accompanying

dation professor of obstetrics gynecology at Johns Hopkins versity

tal in 1988.

the plaque

the cast, we know that Kelly presented

history li-

The cast was presented

into went

In 1899, Hart was made an honorary fellow of the American Gyneco-

Library of ACOG. At a meeting

was translated

a number of languages, and through several editions.s,G

in the Massachusetts

inhalation

for pain relief in labor. This

he did on January 19, 1847. In his day, there was little delay in publication, and he furnished

a brief initial

report in the February

issue of the Ed-

inburgh Monthly Journal of Medical Science,9 followed by a complete Continued on p. 12

he met

and was impressed by Berry Hart, MD.3 Perhaps it was on this or a subsequent

visit that

he was given

General

the 10856862(199811/12)3:6;1-F