Maude Abbott

Maude Abbott

Maude Elizabeth Seymour Abbott (born March 18, 1869 in Saint-André-Est , Quebec , † September 2, 1940 in Montreal ) was a Canadian doctor . She was one of the first women to graduate medical school in Canada and gained international recognition as an expert on congenital heart defects .

Life

Maude Abbott, whose name was Maude Elizabeth Seymour Babin , lost her mother as a little girl. Additionally abandoned by her father, she and her older sister Alice came into the care of their maternal grandmother and was adopted by her and renamed Abbott with her surname. She was a grand cousin of Canadian Prime Minister John Abbott . In 1885 she finished attending a private high school for girls in Montreal, then studied in the same city at McGill University and received in 1890 the title of Bachelor of Arts . After McGill University refused her permission to study medicine because of her gender, she received one at Bishop's University, located in Lennoxville . She was the only woman in her class, but was confronted with acts of sabotage, for example when students stole their case reports in order to hinder their progress . Nevertheless, she achieved her doctorate in 1894 .

After studying for three years in Scotland, Switzerland and Austria, Maude Abbott opened her own practice in Montreal and mainly treated women and children. She was initially interested in pathological anatomy and also worked at the Royal Victoria Hospital. In 1898 she became assistant curator and in 1901 curator of the Pathological Museum of McGill University and arranged the specimens from its collection. Her work was widely recognized, and as a result she co-founded the International Association of Medical Museums and published its bulletins from 1907 to 1938 .

In the early 1900s, Maude Abbott met the well-known Canadian physician William Osler in Baltimore , who protected her and encouraged her to research into congenital heart diseases; in this field she later became a recognized authority. She was able to consolidate her reputation in this regard in 1908 by including her contribution Congenital Cardiac Disease in Osler's Systems of Modern Medicine . In 1910, McGill University awarded her an honorary doctorate in medicine. 1923–1925 she was visiting professor of pathology and bacteriology at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. Together with five other doctors, she founded the Medical Women of Canada Association in 1924 to promote career opportunities for women in the field of medicine. Today this organization bears the name Federation of Medical Women of Canada . After her visiting professorship, Abbott returned to McGill University, where she held the position of assistant professor of pathology from 1925 to 1936.

Maude Abbott also wanted to use museums and historical collections for medical education. On the occasion of the British Medical Association's 100th Anniversary meeting in 1932, she presented an attention-grabbing exposition on congenital heart disease at McGill University. In total, she wrote over 140 scientific articles and books. She also emerged as an author of works on the history of medicine.

After Maude Abbott's retirement in 1936, McGill University awarded her a second honorary doctorate. The Carnegie Foundation granted her $ 2,500 for completing a book on heart disease that never came to an end. She died of a cerebral haemorrhage in Montreal on September 2, 1940, at the age of 71.

A mural of the Cardiology Clinic in Mexico City made in 1943 by the famous Mexican painter Diego Rivera depicts Maude Abbott as the only woman among 50 of the most important cardiac specialists in world history. In 1994 she was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame . Moreover, it was Abbott Iceland named in Antarctica for her.

Works (selection)

• An Historical Sketch of the Medical Faculty of McGill University , in: Montreal Medical Journal , 1902
• Congenital Cardiac Disease , in: William Osler, Systems of Modern Medicine , Vol. 4, Philadelphia / New York 1908
• Florence Nightingale as seen in her Pictures, with a Sketch of her Life , in: Canadian Association Medicine Journal , 1916
• Lectures on the History of Nursing with Descriptive List of Lantern Slides , 1924
• History of medicine in the province of Quebec , Montreal 1931
• Atlas of congenital cardiac disease , New York 1936, reissued 1954
• Classified and annoted bibliography of Sir William Osler's publications , 2nd edition Montreal 1939
• Congenital cardiac abnormalities , in: Diagnosies and treatment of cardiovascular disease , 1940, pp. 14-41

literature

• Abbott, Maude . In: Anne Commire (Ed.) Women in World History . Vol. 1 (1999), ISBN 0-7876-4080-8 , pp. 19f.
• Abbott, Maude Elizabeth . In: Isidor Fischer : Biographical Lexicon of the Outstanding Doctors of the Last Fifty Years , Vol. 1, 1932, p. 2.
• Abbott, Maude Elizabeth . In: Peter Voswinckel (New Hrsg.): Biographical Lexicon of the Outstanding Doctors of the Last Fifty Years , Vol. 3, 2002, pp. 1f.

Web links

Commons : Maude Abbott  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography of Maude Abbott on collectionscanada .
• Biography of Maude Abbott in Laurentian Heritage Magazine .
• Biography of Maude Abbott in The Canadian Encyclopedia .