Name: John Green Curtis
Death date: Sep 20, 1913
Place of death: New York, NY
Type of practice: Allopath
Journal of the American Medical Association Citation:
61:1390 |
John
Green Curtis, M. D., LL. D., youngest child of George and
Julia B. (Bridg- ham) Curtis, was born October 25, 1844, in
New York City, and died September 20,
1913, at Chatham, Massachusetts. He was educated in private schools
and with private tutors in New York
City and was graduated from Harvard University, A. B. in 1860, and
received the degree of M. A. in 1869. Returning to
New York, he entered the College of
Physicians and Surgeons, Medical Department of Columbia University,
from which he graduated, M. D., in 1870. While pursuing his studies,
he served as junior assistant in the first surgical division of the
staff of Bellevue Hospital from April i to September 30, 1869; as
senior assistant from October, 1869, to March 31, 1870, and as house
surgeon from April i to October, 1870.
He also filled the position
of visiting surgeon from 1876 to 1881. In 1870 he began the practice
of medicine and in 1872 entered into partnership as junior partner
with Dr. Henry B. Sands.
Early in his career he became
associated with the teaching staff of the College of Physicians and
Surgeons and held successively the following positions: Assistant
demonstrator of anatomy. 1870 and 1871; demonstrator of anatomy,
1871 to 1875; adjunct lecturer on physiology, 1875 and 1876; adjunct
professor of physiology, 1876 to 1883; professor of physiology, 1883
to 1909. In that year he retired from active duty and was appointed
professor emeritus of physiology. He was also secretary of the
Faculty of Medicine from 1876 to 1890; for six years a member of the
University Council of Columbia University, and for one year dean of
the Faculty of Medicine.
At the outset of his career he
became interested in the science of Physiology and upon his
retirement from private practice in 1883 he gave that department of
science his exclusive attention. He was instrumental in introducing
in America the laboratory method for the demonstration and
investigation of physiology, and under his care the laboratory at
the College of Physicians and Surgeons became an important factor in
the city's scientific life and one of the leading American centers
of physiological science. He was a founder of the American
Physiological Society, and one of the authors of "An American Text
Book of Physiology." He made a special study of the early history of
physiology and of the doctrines of the ancient Greek and Roman and
medieval philosophers and physicians, and in
the course of his researches
acquired a library of the works of these writers which has been
rarely surpassed. In 1900 he delivered the Cartwright lectures at
the New York Academy of Medicine on
"The Discovery of the Nerves and of their Functions." In 1907, by
invitation, he lectured at Johns Hopkins University on "Harvey's
Views of the Use of the Circulation." In 1904 Columbia University
conferred on him the degree of LL. D.
He married (first) October 20,
1874, Mrs. Martha (McCook) Davis, widow of Dupont Alexander Davis
and daughter of Major Daniel McCook, of Ohio. Mrs. Curtis died in
1897. Dr. Curtis married (second) December 13, 1902, Netta E.
Blackwood, daughter of Henry James Blackwood, of Norwich, England.
SCIENTIFIC CHICANERY.
[Extracts from document published
by the American Humane Association.] 1
In the Senate report on
vivisection, issued in 1896, there appears a " statement in behalf
of science," signed by some forty American vivi- sectors or
investigators, asking in effect that the practice of animal
experimentation be continued free from Government supervision or
control. To increase the importance of this manifesto it was
introduced to the public by a special letter, signed, among others,
by Dr. Charles W. Eliot, the president of Harvard University,
vouching for it as a statement which " may be accepted as an
authoritative expression of expert opinion." Its opening sentences
were as follows:
" So long ago as the autumn of
I866 there were published in New York
denunciations of the practice of making upon living animals those
scientific observations and experiments which are commonly called
vivisections. During the following twenty-nine years there have
appeared from time to time similar denunciations, more or less
sweeping and violent. Of these some condemn vivisection altogether,
and others in various of its phases. Some call for its total
abolition, and others for its material restriction. Some are labored
essays, and others are brief 'tracts'or 'leaflets,'in tended more
easily to arrest the attention. * * * In these publications, too,
there often figure extracts from scientific writings, and in many
cases these extracts are so garbled that only ignorant or reckless
animosity could be accepted in excuse for their seeming bad faith."'
Among the signatures to this
document were the following names:
S. Weir Mitchell, M. D.,
Philadelphia, Pa., member of the National Academy of Sciences.
J. G.
Curtis, M. D., professor of
physiology, College of Physicians
and Surgeons, Columbia
College, New York.
W. H. Howell, M. D., professor of
physiology, Johns Hopkins Dni- verity, Baltimore, Md.
H. P. Bowditch, M. D., professor
of physiology, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston,
Mass.
W. T. Porter, M. D., assistant
professor of physiology, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University,
Boston, Mass.
J. W. Warren, M. D., associate
professor of physiology, Bryn Mawr College, Byrn Mawr, Pa.
E. H. Cuittenden, Ph. D.,
professor of physiological chemistry, Yale University,
New Haven, Conn.
(The personal edited research
notes of Michael Echols, the source of which may or
may not be completely documented)
