Background
Jacob Evans was born on June 23, 1849 on a farm near the village of Rauchtown, Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States. His parents, Michael and Phoebe (Sallade) Schadle, were of Revolutionary ancestry of German origin.
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Jacob Evans Schadle
Edit Profilelaryngologist physician researcher
Education
Schadle graduated from the Millersburg state normal school in 1868. In 1876 he began the study of medicine with Dr. John S. Crawford of Williamsport, and in 1881 he received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Later he took a post-graduate course in diseases of the nose and throat under Dr. Charles Euchariste Sajous. He spent three extended periods of study at German medical centers.
Career
After studies Schadle taught school at Millersburg for six years and at Mifflinburg for one year. After a brief period of practice in the village of Pennsdale, near his birthplace, he settled in Shenandoah in the coal region, where he won the appreciation of the community by the skill and courage with which he handled an epidemic of smallpox.
Later he moved in 1887 to St. Paul, Minnesota, in order to devote himself exclusively to the diseases of the nose and throat, and in a few years he became the leading practitioner of laryngology in that section of the Northwest. He was appointed clinical instructor in laryngology at the University of Minnesota in 1896 and clinical professor in 1897; later he was made professor of rhinology and laryngology, a position he held for the remainder of his life.
A skillful operator, he perfected several ingenious instruments for nose and throat work, including a snare for the removal of growths from the nasopharynx, a lymphatome for eradicating adenoid vegetations, and an automatic syringe for intratracheal injections. From the beginning of his career he was a contributor to journal literature.
Two of his early articles are especially noteworthy. In 1885 he reported the successful treatment of five cases of mushroom poisoning by the use of large doses of atropine, the first recorded use in amanitin poisoning of a treatment which later was universally adopted. In 1888 he reported some observations upon the secondary and remote effects of cocaine, in which he called attention for the first time to the afterwards generally recognized deleterious effects of cocaine upon the genital system.
At the time of his death he had accepted an invitation to present the results of his work on hay-fever and asthma before the International Medical Society in Budapest in 1909.
He died at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul of cerebral thrombosis following a short illness.
Achievements
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Jacob Evans Schadle's chief interests during his professional career as a physician were the investigation of the causes and treatment of hay-fever and asthma and of the effects of post-nasal adenoid growths upon the health and development of children. In the result of his practice and studies, he wrote two articles of primary importance: about the successful treatment of five cases of mushroom poisoning by the use of large doses of atropine and about some observations upon the secondary and remote effects of cocaine.
Views
Schadle developed the theory that hay-fever was due to acid secretions from catarrhal inflammation of the maxillary sinus and that extension of the process to the lower respiratory mucous membrane caused asthma.
Personality
Schadle was a confirmed traveler. He was genial and courteous, with a host of personal friends, he was a public-spirited man prominent in the social and civic life.
Connections
At Mifflinburg Schadle met Jane Ray Miller, daughter of Dr. David H. Miller, whom he married in 1878.
