Background

Daniel Joseph McCarthy was born on June 22, 1874, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Daniel McCarthy, a railroad superintendent, and Rebecca Maher.

Education

In 1892, McCarthy graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia, then entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. He received the M. D. degree in 1895. The following year he interned at the Philadelphia Hospital, "Blockley, " which was the center of American neurology. He received further neurological training in 1897 under the dean of American neurologists, S. Weir Mitchell, at the Philadelphia Orthopedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases.

Career

McCarthy spent 1898-1899 in postgraduate studies in Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and Leipzig. He then returned to Philadelphia, where he did work at the William Pepper Laboratories in neuropathology and at the Phipps Institute in the study of tuberculosis. By 1896, McCarthy held a certificate of proficiency in medical jurisprudence, and from 1904 to 1940, he served as professor of the subject at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; from 1926 to 1932 he served as auxiliary lecturer on insanity and expert medical testimony at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. He also was lecturer (1904 -1912) and adjunct professor (1912 -1918) of medical jurisprudence at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

McCarthy had served with the University of Pennsylvania unit of the American Ambulance Hospital, Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, for about six months in the early part of World War I, and as liaison officer with the French army. Finally, in March 1916, he was appointed as special assistant to the American embassy at Berlin. In the latter role he investigated the prisoner-of-war problem, supervising both a detailed survey of all the physical conditions within the prison camps and a thorough inspection of the prisoners themselves. He also reviewed sanitary conditions, handled diplomatic aspects of the exchange of wounded men, corrected hospital abuses and reviewed judicial matter concerning courts-martial. McCarthy excelled in this unique position that allowed him to blend his knowledge of neuropsychiatric disorder and tuberculosis with his knowledge of medical jurisprudence. He returned briefly to the United States, but in late 1917 was again sent abroad by the State Department to investigate the condition of the Russian people following the Revolution. During 1918 McCarthy served as consulting neurologist and commanding officer for the American Expeditionary Force Base Hospital No. 115, Vichy, France. Before the war McCarthy had developed a rather large private practice, holding appointments as a neurologist to the Philadelphia Hospital, the Pennsylvania State Hospital for the Insane at Norristown, St. Agnes Hospital, and the Kensington Dispensary for the Treatment of Tuberculosis. He also had served as chairman of the State Council of the Mental Hygiene Division of the Public Charities Association of Pennsylvania (1912 - 1915).

Between 1933 and 1948, McCarthy was involved with the problems of juvenile delinquency, serving first as director of the Medical Division, then as director of sociological research, and finally as director of probation for the Philadelphia Municipal Court. For many years McCarthy was a trustee of Drexel Institute, an associate trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, and a substantial supporter of Florida Southern College. He was president of the Pathological Society of Philadelphia (1914), the American Neurological Association (1932 - 1933), and the Philadelphia Neurological Society (1934). McCarthy died on October 9, 1958, at Ventnor, New Jersey.

Achievements

• McCarthy founded and became director of two Philadelphia area sanitariums, Roseneathe Farm and Fairmount Farm.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Prisoner of War in Germany: The Care and Treatment of the Prisoner of War With a History of the Development of the Principle of Neutral Inspection and Control

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Medical Treatment of Mental Disease: The Toxic and Organic Basis of Psychiatry

    (Additional Contributors Are Samuel B. Hadden, Roy L. Lang...)

  • Ireland's Banner County: Clare from the Fall of Parnell to the Great War, 1890-1918

Views

McCarthy said that the "doctrine that insanity is due to diseased physical media seems to be most consistent with sound philosophic and physiologic views. .. ." He also suggested that in "every case of true insanity . .. there are pathological changes produced in the brain, although these may . .. be too subtle and recondite to be discovered by our present means of research. "

McCarthy firmly believed that mental diseases were caused by physical disorders, and should be treated "as a matter of disordered chemical, physiologic, and pathologic processes affecting brain function"--that is, as medical and not as psychological problems. While recognizing "that emotional factors are important, constituting a part of the illness, " McCarthy stated that "they represent effects of diseases, not causes. "

Personality

During the 1930's and 1940's, McCarthy became more interested in experimental and sociological concerns. In addition to his Phila delphia Institute for the Study and Prevention of Nervous and Mental Disorders, he organized the McCarthy-Kirby Foundation at the University of Pennsylvania, the McCarthy-Dobbs Foundation at Jefferson Medical College, and the McCarthy Research Foundation at Temple University. All of these provided financial assistance for neurological investigators, with the funds at Temple specifically supporting departments of experimental neurology and medical colloidal chemistry.

Connections

McCarthy married Elizabeth Allen White on June 21, 1926; they had one son.

Father:

Daniel McCarthy

Mother:

Rebecca Maher

Wife:

Elizabeth Allen White

References

• Joseph McCarthy: The Misuse of Political Power