Stephen Walter Ranson

Background

Stephen Walter Ransonwas born on August 28, 1880 in Dodge Center, Minnesota, the youngest of three boys and three girls. His parents, Stephen William Ranson, a physician, and Mary Elizabeth (Foster) Ranson, were of English and Welsh lineage, natives, respectively, of Ottawa, Canada, and Vermont.

Education

His parents encouraged higher education for their children; three became physicians and two gained the Ph. D. degree. Stephen Ranson graduated from the local high school, entered the University of Minnesota, and, following the example of one of his sisters, planned to become a psychologist.

As his study progressed, however, his interest shifted to the physical structure of the nervous system, and during summer vacations at home he carried out animal experiments in a makeshift laboratory. His reading of the influential monograph by Henry H. Donaldson, The Growth of the Brain, led him to transfer to the University of Chicago to concentrate on neurology. His credits there enabled him to receive the A. B. degree from Minnesota in 1902, after which he continued study at Chicago under Donaldson. He received the Ph. D. degree in 1905 with a thesis on "Retrograde Degeneration in Spinal Nerves. " He next enrolled at Rush Medical College in Chicago, which granted him the M. D. degree in 1907.

Career

After a year's internship at the Cook County Hospital he opened an office for the part-time practice of medicine. At the same time he became an assistant in anatomy at Northwestern University Medical School.

In 1910 Ranson was made associate professor of anatomy at Northwestern and abandoned his clinical career for one of teaching and research. He spent a year (1910 - 11) studying with Robert E. E. Wiedersheim at the University of Freiburg, and then returned to Northwestern as professor and chairman of the department of anatomy, a post he held for the next thirteen years.

Ranson was a conscientious and able teacher, although he was less effective in classroom lectures than in the laboratory, where his enthusiasm for his field, his high standards of workmanship, and his insistence on logical thinking were a strong stimulus to individual students. He also exerted a wide influence through his textbook, Anatomy of the Nervous System (1920), which was the first full and adequate presentation of the subject; before his death he had prepared the seventh edition. Ranson's interest in research, however, outweighed his concern for teaching. Hoping to find greater freedom for his own work, in 1924 he accepted an appointment as professor and head of the department of neuroanatomy and histology at the Washington University Medical School in St. Louis.

Four years later he returned to Northwestern as professor of neurology to organize and direct the research of the newly founded Institute of Neurology, where he remained for the rest of his life.

In 1940 the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Diseases published a volume of research papers on the hypothalamus dedicated to Ranson. Other honors that came to him included the presidency of the American Association of Anatomists (1938 - 40), membership on the editorial board of the Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, and election to the National Academy of Sciences (1940).

A gastric ulcer, which was particularly troublesome in his later years, further curtailed his activities outside the laboratory. In 1941 Ranson suffered a coronary thrombosis. He made a fairly good recovery, but a recurrence the next year, just after his sixty-second birthday, brought death almost instantly, at his home in Chicago. His remains were cremated at Chicago's Graceland Cemetery.

Achievements

• Ranson was an unusually able administrator and director of research at the Institute, whose laboratories issued some thirteen volumes of papers during his fourteen years as its head. His own bibliography contains about 200 titles, more than half deriving from work by him and his collaborators during this same period. Among other research, he investigated the processes of degeneration and regeneration of nerve fibers, the structure of the vagus nerve, vasomotor pathways, and the functional role of spinal ganglia; he also developed a pyridine silver stain that could differentiate the various components of nerve tissue. Perhaps his most significant contributions were his experimental studies of the function of the hypothalamus, through its influence on the pituitary gland and the autonomic nervous system, as the control center for the sympathetic nervous system, temperature regulation and water exchange in the body, emotional response, and sexual function.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The anatomy of the nervous system: from the standpoint of development and function

    (This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)

  • The Anatomy of the Nervous System from the Standpoint of Development and Function - Primary Source Edition

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

  • The anatomy of the nervous system,: From the standpoint of development and function,
  • The Anatomy of the Nervous System: Its Development and Function
  • The anatomy of the nervous system from the standpoint of development and function

Personality

Ranson was by nature dignified, yet unassuming and approachable. He was indifferent to formal social activities and spent his evenings largely in the quiet enjoyment of his family.

Connections

His wife was Tessie Grier Rowland of Oak Park, Illinois, whom he had married on August 18, 1909. They had three children, Stephen William (who became a physician), Margaret Jane, and Mary Elizabeth.

Father:

Stephen William Ranson

A physician

Mother:

Mary Elizabeth (Foster) Ranson

Spouse:

Tessie Grier Rowland

Daughter:

Margaret Jane

Daughter:

Mary Elizabeth

Son:

Stephen William

A physician

References

• Stephen Walter Ranson: Ground-Breaking Neuroscientist