Lewis Hill Weed

Background

Lewis Hill Weed was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Charles Henry Weed, an ironmaster and a banker, and Mary Frances Lewis Weed.

Education

He earned the A. B. in 1908 and the A. M. in 1909 from Yale University. After receiving the M. D. in 1912 from Johns Hopkins University he held a fellowship in surgical research at Harvard Medical School with the celebrated neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing. There he carried on successful research on the physiology of the cerebrospinal fluid.

Career

In 1914 he became instructor in anatomy at Johns Hopkins and in 1917 published a monograph on the embryonic development of the cerebrospinal spaces. He subsequently proved that the cerebrospinal fluid is formed by transudation from the choroid plexuses of the lateral ventricles of the brain. His conclusion that the cerebrospinal fluid is reabsorbed by the arachnoid villi of the great venous sinuses of the brain was disputed but is now widely accepted. Weed's studies led to two important clinical applications. One was a method of producing hydrocephalus experimentally in young animals, which gave a clue to the development of this condition in human infants. The other, now a common surgical procedure, was a method of temporarily reducing the size of the brain by injecting into the blood stream a hypertonic saline solution in order to relieve pressure upon the brain caused by swelling of its tissues after injury or surgical intervention. When the United States entered World War I, Weed was commissioned a captain in the Army Medical Corps and was detailed to direct a neurosurgical laboratory at Johns Hopkins. His conspicuous success there rendered him the obvious choice for the chair of anatomy following F. P. Mall's death in 1917. He brought together a group of able young men, several of whom later headed departments in other schools. At the age of thirty-seven he became dean of the Johns Hopkins Medical School and, in 1929, director of the Medical School. After the death in 1934 of William H. Welch, then the leading American medical statesman, Weed to some extent replaced Welch as adviser on faculty appointments and on many other problems. He seemed to be on his way to the presidency of a large university or foundation when he accepted an offer in 1939 from the National Academy of Sciences to lead the division of medical sciences of the academy's subsidiary, the National Research Council, in preparing medical and biological scientists for participation in the war effort. Dropping most of his work at Johns Hopkins and commuting to Washington five days a week, he carried out the prodigious task of coordinating the research efforts of the civilian medical scientists, the medical services of the armed forces, and the British liaison officers. His division of the National Research Council acquired a collateral relation to the Office of Scientific Research and Development, and Weed became vice-chairman of the OSRD's section of medical research. In 1943 he became chairman of the medical advisory committee of the American Red Cross. In any group that he organized, mutual respect and loyalty prevailed. On the larger stage of administration, his self-confidence and disdain of pettiness sometimes gave an impression of coldness. The personality thus put to work in the public service of science was much like that of a corporation executive of the best type. In 1949, still heavily burdened by his work at the National Research Council, Weed developed tuberculosis of the larynx. With characteristic decisiveness, he submitted to strict sanatorium discipline. Within a year his throat had healed, but he retired to Reading, Pa. Thereafter he limited his activity to attending trustees' meetings of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, and the Yale Corporation. He died in Reading.

Achievements

• As an executive, he was very effective in promoting research throughout the school by securing financial support and by encouraging the workers. He played a leading part in creating a great medical library by merging existing collections, and he organized the first full-fledged department of the history of medicine in the United States. Weed had a role in planning almost all of the National Research Council's major wartime enterprises, notably the search for better antimalarial drugs, the production of antibiotics, the improvement of blood transfusion methods, and research in aviation physiology. His scientific achievements and wartime services to the United States and Great Britain were recognized by a Presidential Medal for Merit and the Order of the British Empire.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Cerebrospinal Fluid (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Cerebrospinal Fluid In addition to this...)

  • A Reconstruction of the Nuclear Masses in the Lower Portion of the Human Brain-Stem

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • The Cerebrospinal Fluid V2 (1922)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

Personality

Weed's personal life was never shaken by outward circumstances, financial difficulties, or domestic cares. To his strong organizational skills, he added scientific curiosity and broad cultural interests.

Connections

He never married.

Father:

Charles Henry Weed

An ironmaster and a banker

Mother:

Mary Frances Lewis Weed