The Pathology of the Pneumonia in the United States Army Camps During the Winter of 1917-18
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A Textbook of Pathology. Seventh Edition, Thoroughly Revised.
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William George MacCallum was a Canadian-American physician and pathologist.
Background
William George MacCallum was born on April 18, 1874, in Dunnville, Ontario, Canada. He was the older of two sons and second of four children of George Alexander MacCallum and Florence Octavia (Eakins) MacCallum, both from small Ontario towns.
His father, the son of a Scottish immigrant, was a physician who maintained a busy country practice and, for a time, served as medical superintendent of two Ontario hospitals for the insane.
Deeply interested in natural history, he cultivated in both his sons (the younger of whom also became a physician) a broad approach to scientific investigation. MacCallum's mother was an accomplished pianist and singer who gave her children a deep love of music.
Education
Educated initially at home, MacCallum entered the public schools at the age of nine. He remained, however, under the tutelage of his father, to whom he was always close, accompanying him on house calls and studying with him in a makeshift home laboratory. After completing high school in 1889, he attended the University of Toronto. There he studied the classics, though he also took courses in the sciences and, through a biology professor, became interested in the trematode parasites.
He received the A. B. degree in 1894 and hoped to continue the study of Greek but, at his father's insistence, agreed to shift to medicine and entered the new Johns Hopkins Medical School. Having already completed courses equivalent to the first year, MacCallum was allowed to begin at the second-year level. He graduated in 1897 at the head of the school's first graduating class, and returned home to spend the summer working in his father's woodshed laboratory.
There, studying the malarial parasites in the blood of a crow, he made his first notable scientific discovery, identifying the flagellated form of the avian parasite as the agent of sexual conjugation. In later work, he demonstrated that the same mechanism operated in the reproductive cycle of the human malarial parasite.
In 1900, he went to Leipzig, Germany, where he studied in Felix M. Marchand's laboratory. He returned to Baltimore in 1901, completed his training, and in 1902 was appointed associate professor of pathology.
Career
After graduation, MacCallum spent one year as an intern at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and then became assistant resident in pathology under William Henry Welch (1850-1934). After completing his internship in 1898 at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, MacCallum stayed on as an assistantresident in pathology under William H. Welch. In 1900, MacCallum went to Germany and worked in the laboratory of professor Felix Jacob Marchand (1846-1928) in Leipzig.
Shortly after his return to Baltimore in 1901, he was made resident pathologist, then associate professor of pathology and finally was promoted in 1908 to the position of pathological physiology, a chair created especially for him. In 1909, he accepted a call to Columbia University and from 1909 to 1917, he was professor of pathology at Columbia University and pathologist to the Presbyterian Hospital in New York.
The first fifteen years, MacCallum spent in Baltimore furnished him an opportunity to pursue his work under the most favourable circumstances, working with several of the great names of his days. The move to New York in 1909, however, brought many new responsibilities with it. His work there was influenced by efforts in the development of medical education, as well as the plans for a closer affiliation of the College of Physicians and the Presbyterian Hospital.
At Columbia, he investigated the pathologic physiology of valvular heart disease and demonstrated the relationship between diabetes mellitus and the islets of Langerhans, employing an operative technique duct ligation that was later used by Sir Frederick Grant Banting and Charles Herbert Best to isolate insulin. In 1916, MacCallum published his Textbook of Pathology, a work that for the first time classified disease on the basis of etiology.
Rather than giving a monotonous list of every condition that could affect each bodily organ, he discussed the general principles underlying pathological changes in the body and used all the common and important diseases to illustrate these principles; the work went through seven editions during his lifetime, and his system of presentation is still used in modern textbooks. While in New York, MacCallum also was influential in getting the old-fashioned, politically appointed city coroner replaced by a medical examiner's office headed by a trained pathologist.
MacCallum returned in 1917 to Johns Hopkins to become professor of pathology and bacteriology, succeeding Welch, who had resigned to become director of the newly established School of Hygiene and Public Health at Johns Hopkins. The most important investigation of his later years was a classic study of epidemic pneumonia among army personnel during World War I. He had a special interest in the history of medicine and served as president of the Medical History Club at Johns Hopkins, 1940-41.
In the spring of 1943, he suffered a disabling stroke. He died in Baltimore the following year at the age of sixty-nine; his ashes were buried in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore.
Achievements
MacCallum made discoveries on the life cycle of the malarial parasite and the physiology of the parathyroid gland, and studied valvular lesions of the heart and the pathology of influenza.
In 1919, he discovered the stain, known as MacCallum's stain, which is used to render influenza bacilli visible under a microscope. He received many honors, including election in 1921 to the National Academy of Sciences.
In 1901, MacCallum published two important papers elucidating the microscopic anatomy of the lymphatic system. In the first, he demonstrated that the lymphatic vessels had complete endothelial linings and comprised a closed continuous vascular system similar to that of the arteries and veins; the second explained the mechanism by which red blood cells and other particulate matter were absorbed into this closed system.
Though he had begun to study the lymphatic system in Leipzig, much of his work was carried out under the guidance of Welch, with whom he had established a warm working relationship. MacCallum also became a devoted colleague of William S. Halsted, whose biography he later wrote.
Through Halsted, MacCallum became interested in finding the cause of the complications that sometimes developed in patients who had undergone thyroidectomies, and in 1905, he undertook a series of classic experiments with the pharmacologist Carl Voegtlin.
Together with Carl Voegtlin distinguished the independent functions of the thyroid and parathyroid glands and defined the role of the parathyroid hormone in controlling calcium exchange in the body. They further showed that, after removal of the parathyroid glands, tetany could be prevented by injecting a solution of calcium salts. These contributions, in addition to making thyroid surgery a safe procedure, explained basic physiologic mechanisms related to many other pathologic conditions.
Personality
Those who knew him have characterized MacCallum as a man of fastidious tastes and variable moods. An inherent shyness made him difficult to approach, and he never married. Yet, he enjoyed good conversation and had a lively sense of humor that contributed to his skill as a teacher. One of his great enjoyments was travel.
Neither MacCallum’s interest in teaching nor his investigations in science appeared to satisfy his restless mind completely, which seemed almost impatient in its requirements for knowledge, nor did they fulfil altogether his emotional needs which sought continuously for new experiences.
Greek never lost its fascination for him, though curiously enough he never appears to have made a journey to Greece. He was an omnivorous reader and, since he was perfectly familiar with both French and German, his knowledge of literature was very extensive. He was fond of music and enjoyed especially hearing both German and French Opera.
Connections
MacCallum was never married and had no children.
Father:
George A. MacCallum
Mother:
Florence Eakins
Brother:
John Bruce MacCallum
Would also become a physician but died at the age of thirty due to tuberculosis.
