Cushing, Harvey Williams

SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology

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b. 8 April 1869 Cleveland, Ohio, USA

d. 7 October 1939 New Haven, Connecticut, USA

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American neurosurgeon and innovator of antihaemorrhagic techniques including the use of electrocoagulation.

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Cushing graduated in medicine from Harvard University in 1895, having already acquired an arts degree at Yale (1891). He held posts in Boston and at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, from 1897 until 1890, and then travelled abroad. After studying in Germany and England he returned to Baltimore to become Assistant Professor of Surgery in 1903 working under W.S. Halsted, a post he held until 1912. In 1905 he started specializing in neurosurgery, undertaking much experimental work and developing new instruments and techniques, such as spinal anaesthesia and in particular the electrosurgical methods pioneered by W.T. Bovie.

Returning to Harvard as Professor of Surgery, he established a renowned school of neurosurgery. He retired from Harvard in 1932, becoming Stirling Professor of Neurosurgery until 1937 and then Director of Studies in the History of Medicine at Yale.

His researches in neurophysiology were extensive and the eponymous pituitary syndrome is only one of a large number of discoveries in the field. He was awarded numerous honours, both American and international. He was a noted bibliophile, particularly of medical books and manuscripts, and his own extensive collection was bequeathed to Yale, becoming an important part of the Historical Medical Library.

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Bibliography

1928, "Electrosurgery as an aid to the removal of intracranial tumours", Surg. Gynec. Obstet.

1912, The Pituitary Body and its Disorders.

1928, Tumours Arising from the Blood-vessels of the Brain. 1925, Life of Sir William Osler.

Further Reading

J.F.Fulton, 1946, Harvey Cushing: A Biography.

MG