William Henry Welch

With Karl Sudhoff in Bad Homburg in 1927

William Henry Welch (born April 8, 1850 in Norfolk , Litchfield County , Connecticut , † April 30, 1934 in Baltimore , Maryland ) was an American pathologist and hygienist. He was one of the most influential physicians in the USA in the late 19th and early 20th centuries . He played a leading role in both fighting a serious measles epidemic in the 1910s and fighting the Spanish flu , which raged worldwide from 1918 to 1920 and killed at least 25 million people.

Which came from a family of doctors. His grandfather, a great-uncle, his father and four of his uncles were practicing doctors; his father, William W. Welch, was also a politician and a congressman for Connecticut.

William Henry Welch studied medicine at Yale University from 1871 at a time when medical training was not very advanced compared to Europe. In 1875 he received his doctorate. Welch, who had become acquainted with the standard of medical education in Europe between 1876 and 1878, did a great deal to make medical studies more scientific. As a professor of pathology at Bellevue Hospital Medical College (NY), he held laboratory courses from 1879 onwards, during which microscopes were regularly used for the first time in the USA . In 1884 he received a chair in pathology at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore). Harvey Cushing was one of his students .

In 1926 the first chair in the history of medicine in America was established at Johns Hopkins University. Welch became a professor. For this purpose he renewed his knowledge of the classical languages and he went on a study trip to Europe in 1927. It was there that the Leipzig Medical History Institute made the deepest impression on him. The institute's founder , Karl Sudhoff , handed the Leipzig institute over to Henry E. Sigerist in 1925 . Welch brought Sigerist to Baltimore in 1932 as his successor.

Honors

In 1897 Welch was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . William Henry Welch was 1913-1917 President of the National Academy of Sciences , whose member he was since 1895. In 1926 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina .

A medal awarded by the American Association for the History of Medicine was named after William Henry Welch and is awarded annually to authors of fundamentally important medical works. In 1950, Henry E. Sigerist was the first to receive an award for his scientific work.

literature

Christoph Gradmann : Welch, William Henry. In: Werner E. Gerabek u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of medical history. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1470 f.

Web links

Commons : William Henry Welch - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

^ Elisabeth Berg-Schorn: Henry E. Sigerist (1891-1957). Medical historian in Leipzig and Baltimore. Cologne 1978 (= work of the research center of the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Cologne. Volume 9), pp. 83–84
^ List of members Leopoldina, William Welch
↑ Description of the award conditions at the American Association for the History of Medicine on histmed.org, accessed April 13, 2011 (English)

personal data
SURNAME	Welch, William Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American medic
DATE OF BIRTH	April 8, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH	Norfolk , Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH	April 30, 1934
Place of death	Baltimore , Maryland

[1] Elisabeth Berg-Schorn: Henry E. Sigerist (1891-1957). Medical historian in Leipzig and Baltimore. Cologne 1978 (= work of the research center of the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Cologne. Volume 9), pp. 83–84

[2] List of members Leopoldina, William Welch

[3] Description of the award conditions at the American Association for the History of Medicine on histmed.org, accessed April 13, 2011 (English)