Morrill Wyman

July 25, 1812 (age 90)

Chelmsford, Massachusetts, United States

He began practice in Cambridge, where he continued for more than sixty years as a physician much beloved in his community. During this period he found time to devote to the more scientific aspects of medicine. In 1846 he published A Practical Treatise on Ventilation, dealing particularly with the ventilation of public buildings and hospitals. This work, which was an authority for many years, was followed in 1848 by a report for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on ventilators and chimneytops, an important contribution. His most effective service to American medical science, however, was rendered in 1850. For some years before that time he had been considering the possibility of improving the operation of thoracentesis, or surgical drainage of the pleural cavity, a procedure not known in America but used in London as early as 1840. On February 23, 1850, by means of a very small hollow exploring needle and trocar, he removed twenty ounces of fluid from the chest of a patient. This operation was repeated two days later with great success. In April 1850, in association with Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, he operated upon a second patient, this time with the aid of a suction pump. These cases and others were reported by Wyman and Bowditch at a meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society in May 1851, and by Bowditch in the American Journal of Medical Sciences for April 1852. The substitution of the small hollow needle in the place of the large cannula formerly used made the procedure safe and simple, and the discovery is an important landmark in the history of the treatment of pleurisy. Wyman's third contribution to medicine was a practical book, Autumnal Catarrh (Hay Fever), published in 1872 and reprinted with additions in 1876. Wyman, long a sufferer himself, clearly described this form of allergy for the first time, and mapped out certain regions, particularly the White Mountains, where the disease was not prevalent. In 1853 he was appointed adjunct Hersey Professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the Harvard Medical School, as an associate of John Ware. He resigned in 1856, and early in 1857, with Ware, Jeffries Wyman, and J. P. Cooke, formed a private medical school in Cambridge. He was a strong supporter of President Lincoln and during the Civil War served as an inspector of hospitals. From 1875 to 1887 he was an overseer of Harvard College. Morrill Wyman died on January 30, 1903 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Practical Treatise on Ventilation (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Practical Treatise on Ventilation Organic c...)

A Memorial of William W. Wellington, M. D., Of Cambridge: Read Before the Cambridge Medical Improvement Society, 28th December, 1896 (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from A Memorial of William W. Wellington, M. D., ...)

The Early History of the McLean Asylum for the Insane: A Criticism of the Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health for 1877 (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from The Early History of the McLean Asylum for t...)

Cottage Hospitals (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Cottage Hospitals The ward to which the fol...)

Excerpt from Cottage Hospitals The ward to which the following observations refer is 60 feet by 30 feet, and 12 feet high, the ceiling higher in the middle than at the walls, with cubic feet of space, giving 113 square feet of ﬂooring and cubic feet of space for each patient. It has five windows on each side. At the south end is the sun-room, 8 feet by 30, open or glazed as the season may require. The 16 beds in each ward (the hospital has 40 beds) are arranged with the head next the wall and about one foot from it, well out of the way Of direct currents. Beneath each bed is an eight-inch pipe which rises about three inches above the ﬂoor and is connected beneath it with a foul-air duct leading to the ventilating chimney of 16 square feet area and 60 feet in height. The other ventilating apertures are the windows, of about 20 square feet each, with movable sashes, double in winter, with a deﬂecting board above the upper sash for the better distribution Of the incom ing air. Each Of these windows gives, when open, an area of nine square feet. There are two Openings in the ceiling of about 10 feet area each; in the middle of the ward is a chimney with fireplaces on two of its sides. They are frequently used in the mild weather of spring and fall. Above the ceiling are two trunks for ventilating the attics, and 14 openings On the sides, just beneath the eaves, and protected from the rain; when Open in summer these Openings allow of the free movement of the winds over the ﬂoor, materially cool ing it and the ceiling below. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Reality and Certainty of Medicine: An Address Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society, June 17th, 1863 (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from The Reality and Certainty of Medicine: An Ad...)

Excerpt from The Reality and Certainty of Medicine: An Address Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society, June 17th, 1863 Notwithstanding the evidence of the self-devotion of the practitioners of the Healing Art, and of their just confidence in its results with which its history teems, and of which the past year furnishes such bright examples, those are not wanting who doubt its usefulness and the certainty of its foundations. This grows in a great measure out of a mental rest lessness and tendency to scepticism, which seems to be rather a prominent feature of our times, leading to the raising of doubt and question with regard to well-received doctrines; which, because the doubt ers themselves cannot solve to their own satisfaction, they straitway conclude that no one else can. These discontented persons are not many, but they make up by noise and activity what they want in numbers, and soon draw together a ﬂoating class always ready to listen to the suggestions of others. They also allure those of a speculative turn, including many of the literary and in some respects more inﬂuential class, those whose studies lead them rather to a knowledge of ideas than of things, whose steps are guided not by the lamp of experience, but who, as has been said, bear about a dark lantern of theory. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Report of a Committee: Of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Autumnal Catarrh Hay-Fever: With Illustrative Maps

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

Direct elections and law-making by popular vote; the initiative, the referendum, the recall, commiss

(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

Progress in school discipline: Corporal punishment in the public schools : addressed to the citizens of Cambridge

Morrill Wyman Edit Profile

physician reformer

Background

Morrill Wyman was born on July 25, 1812, in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, the second son of Dr. Rufus Wyman, first director of the McLean Asylum, and Ann Morrill.

Education

Prepared at Phillips Exeter Academy, Wyman graduated from Harvard College in 1833 and from the Harvard Medical School in 1837, serving his last year as a house pupil at the Massachusetts General Hospital under James Jackson and others.

Career

He began practice in Cambridge, where he continued for more than sixty years as a physician much beloved in his community. During this period he found time to devote to the more scientific aspects of medicine. In 1846 he published A Practical Treatise on Ventilation, dealing particularly with the ventilation of public buildings and hospitals. This work, which was an authority for many years, was followed in 1848 by a report for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on ventilators and chimneytops, an important contribution. His most effective service to American medical science, however, was rendered in 1850. For some years before that time he had been considering the possibility of improving the operation of thoracentesis, or surgical drainage of the pleural cavity, a procedure not known in America but used in London as early as 1840.

On February 23, 1850, by means of a very small hollow exploring needle and trocar, he removed twenty ounces of fluid from the chest of a patient. This operation was repeated two days later with great success. In April 1850, in association with Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, he operated upon a second patient, this time with the aid of a suction pump. These cases and others were reported by Wyman and Bowditch at a meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society in May 1851, and by Bowditch in the American Journal of Medical Sciences for April 1852. The substitution of the small hollow needle in the place of the large cannula formerly used made the procedure safe and simple, and the discovery is an important landmark in the history of the treatment of pleurisy. Wyman's third contribution to medicine was a practical book, Autumnal Catarrh (Hay Fever), published in 1872 and reprinted with additions in 1876. Wyman, long a sufferer himself, clearly described this form of allergy for the first time, and mapped out certain regions, particularly the White Mountains, where the disease was not prevalent. In 1853 he was appointed adjunct Hersey Professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the Harvard Medical School, as an associate of John Ware. He resigned in 1856, and early in 1857, with Ware, Jeffries Wyman, and J. P. Cooke, formed a private medical school in Cambridge. He was a strong supporter of President Lincoln and during the Civil War served as an inspector of hospitals. From 1875 to 1887 he was an overseer of Harvard College.

Morrill Wyman died on January 30, 1903 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Achievements

One of the most respected doctors of his time, a social reformer, Harvard overseer, hospital president and author in his long lifetime, Morrill Wyman is best known today for his work on hay fever. Morrill Wyman was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was the founder, in 1886, of the Cambridge Hospital, one of the buildings of which bears his name.