Background
Maurice Howe Richardson was born on December 31, 1851 in Athol, Massachussets, the son of Nathan Henry and Martha Ann (Barber) Richardson, of New England descent.
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Maurice Howe Richardson
Edit ProfileEducation
He was graduated by Harvard College in 1873. While teaching the next year in the Salem (Massachussets) High School, he came into contact with Edward B. Peirson, M. D. , who first turned his thoughts towards medicine. After a year of apprenticeship with Peirson he entered the second-year class at the Harvard Medical School and was graduated in 1877. A brief surgical training at the Massachusetts General Hospital followed.
Career
In 1877 he began practice in Boston, at the same time entering upon his work as a teacher at the Harvard Medical School. He gradually worked through the department of anatomy into surgery, finally holding the highest position in that branch of medicine in the Harvard Medical School as Moseley Professor of Surgery from 1907 until the time of his death. During the same period he was actively associated with the Massachusetts General Hospital, acting as visiting surgeon from 1886 to 1910 and subsequently as surgeon-in-chief.
In later years his work was confined to abdominal surgery and his knowledge of this region of the body, both anatomically and pathologically, was not surpassed by any of his contemporaries. "The surgical problems that lurked in the depths of the body, that could only be uncovered and unraveled by difficult dissection guided by great anatomical knowledge, were the ones that he sought and enjoyed".
He wrote many papers on surgical subjects and lectured widely. The most notable of his writings concerned themselves with the development of the operation for appendicitis (1892 - 98), first clearly outlined by one of his teachers, Reginald Heber Fitz, and with the diseases of the gall passages, the pancreas, and other organs lying closely in the upper abdominal cavity. The elucidation of diagnostic criteria of abdominal disease and the demonstration of the technique of regional surgery in a cavity of the body which had, previous to his time, been only partially and inadequately explored, were his major contributions to medicine.
Achievements
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His surgical career was marked by his great skill as a teacher and lecturer. Based upon a fundamental knowledge of anatomy and augmented by remarkable skill in drawing on the blackboard, his demonstrations were masterpieces of clear presentation. No operative surgeon in America had a finer or more deserved reputation than Richardson at the height of his career.
Membership
Numerous medical societies, both national and international, enjoyed his membership.
Personality
Richardson was well equipped, both physically and mentally, for the strenuous life of a surgeon of his day. Athletic in type, he thoroughly enjoyed long walks, swimming in the open sea, arduous trips to scattered operations over a wide range of country and, when the day proved too short for his numerous undertakings, early morning writing. At home he was delightfully hospitable, played the piano, as well as a number of other musical instruments, and entertained a host of friends.
As a practitioner he was kindly, friendly, and devoted to his patients.
Connections
In 1879 he married Margaret White Peirson, daughter of his old preceptor. They had six children.
