THEODORE WILLIS FISHER

Background

Theodore Willis Fisher was born at Westboro, Massachusetts, the son of Milton Metcalf and Eleanor (Metcalf) Fisher; his family, of English origin, settled in Dedham, Massachusetts, as early as 1638.

Education

He was educated at Phillips Academy, Andover, and the Harvard Medical School (M. D. 1861).

Career

From 1862 to 1863 he served as surgeon to the 44th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia and at one time was in charge of the Foster General Hospital at New Bern, North Carolina. Always interested in mental disease, on his return to Boston, he became assistant superintendent of the Boston Lunatic Hospital in 1863, retiring to private practise in 1869. His services, after 1870, were soon in demand and he was made examining physician to the Board of Overseers of Public Institutions in Boston and examiner for the public insane. His reputation as a psychiatrist and alienist grew rapidly and “in the seventies, he was the leading expert in his branch in Boston and was frequently called on to testify as a witness in court” (Channing).

In 1872 he published Plain Talk about Insanity, which served further to establish his reputation as a psychiatrist; his advice was sought by the state when erecting new hospitals for patients with mental disease. He practised successfully until 1881, when he accepted the position as superintendent of the Boston Lunatic Hospital. Here, until 1895, when he retired on account of his health, he carried out his progressive ideas and established something of a national reputation.

During this period he taught in the Harvard Medical School (1884 - 98). He wrote few, but sound, papers such as Cerebral Localization (1889), emphasizing the new field of brain surgery.

In 1881 he was called by the defense to testify at the Guiteau trial. Fisher was not allowed to express his full opinion in court; he thought Guiteau insane and therefore irresponsible. After the declaration of sanity, he, as well as other alienists, made a vigorous report on the subject (Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, June 29, 1882), criticizing sharply the conduct of the counsel for the defense.

Fisher belonged to many medical societies, including the New England Psychological Society, the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, the Massachusetts Medical Society, and the American Medical Association.

Achievements

• He was one of the founders in 1880 of the Boston Society of Psychiatry and Neurology and its president in 1893.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Plain Talk About Insanity: Its Causes, Forms, Symptoms, and the Treatment of Mental Diseases; with Remarks On Hospitals and Asylums, and the Medico-Legal Aspect of Insanity

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

  • A case of tumor of the brain: Read before the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, at Philadelphia, May 15, 1884

Views

Like most experts of his day, he believed it his duty to be a medical attorney and lay stress on points that would help the side that called him. His chief recreations were fishing and hunting, of which he was very fond. Death came to him after many years of invalidism from a chronic hereditary mental disease long well intrenched in his family. Although he knew the fatal nature of the malady, he bore himself with exceptional bravery, as was consistent with his character.

Personality

Dr. Fisher was an active, energetic man, at times thought brusque by those that did not know him well. As an expert in court he was straightforward, truthful, and was never known to be guilty of trickery or under-handedness.

Connections

He married, in 1858, Maria, daughter of Dr. Artemus Brown of Medway, Massachusetts.

After the death of his first wife he married again, in 1873, Ella Richardson of Boston.

Four children survived him.

Father:

Milton Metcalf

Mother:

Eleanor (Metcalf) Fisher

1st wife:

Maria Brown

2nd wife:

Ella Richardson