ANESTHESIA AND ANALGESIA . . . Current Researches VOL.54, No. 5, SEPT.-OCT.,1975
654
HISTORICAL VIGNETTES THOMAS
E. KEYS, M.A.,
Sc.D. (honorary)
Rochester, Minnesota*
Howard Wilcox Haggard
1891-1959
H
WILCOXHAGGARD was born in La Porte, Indiana, on July 18, 1891. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and then Yale University, where he received the degrees of bachelor of philosophy in 1914 and doctor of medicine in 1917. He was physiologist for the U. S. Bureau of Mines in 1917, and then served in the Chemical Warfare Service of the U. S. Army in World War I. In 1919, he became an instructor in physiology in the Yale University School of Medicine. In 1923, he was advanced to associate professor and in 1938 he succeeded Dr. Yandell Henderson as professor and director of the Laboratory of Applied Physiology at Yale. He retired in 1956 living at Tabernier, Florida, until his death on April 21, 1959. Dr. Haggard early concerned himself mainly with noxious gases and vapors occurring in industry. He published many papers on the toxicity, absorption, metabolism and elimination of carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, volatile hydrocarbons and other substances. With Yandell Henderson, in 1926, he published the book, Noxious Gases and the Principles of Respiration Influencing Their Action, and developed and introduced the use of carbon dioxide in oxygen for resuscitation. The principles used in study of noxious OWARD
gases were in 1923 applied to anesthetics, mainly ether, resulting in the publication of a series of papers on the absorption, distribution and elimination of volatile anesthetics. As mentioned by Faulconerl, “It is our feeling that the papers of Howard W. Haggard . . . are of vast importance to the student of inhalation anesthesia, and that they are in truth the source of much of our modern knowledge of the mechanism of the action of inhalation agents.” In the 1930’s Dr. Haggard’s research centered on Alcohol. The Yale Center of Alcohol Studies, including research on all phases of the alcohol problem was founded in 1940, and clinics for the treatment of alcoholic patients, a summer school and a journal, The Quarterly Journal of Studies in Alcohol, of which Dr. Haggard was editor, were developed. Dr. Haggard’s interest in medical history led to the publications of several popular books on the subject; best known is his Devils, Drugs and Doctors.
REFERENCE 1. FauIconer A Jr, Keys TE: Foundations of Anesthesiology, Springfield, Illinois, Charles C Thomas, c1965, v. 1, p. 265. These papers originally published in the Journal of Biological Chemist r y for 1924 have been reproduced in Foundations of Anesthesiology, v. I, pp. 322-371.
*Emeritus Professor of the History of Medicine, Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Rochester, Minnesota 55901.
654
HISTORICAL VIGNETTES THOMAS
E. KEYS, M.A.,
Sc.D. (honorary)
Rochester, Minnesota*
Howard Wilcox Haggard
1891-1959
H
WILCOXHAGGARD was born in La Porte, Indiana, on July 18, 1891. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and then Yale University, where he received the degrees of bachelor of philosophy in 1914 and doctor of medicine in 1917. He was physiologist for the U. S. Bureau of Mines in 1917, and then served in the Chemical Warfare Service of the U. S. Army in World War I. In 1919, he became an instructor in physiology in the Yale University School of Medicine. In 1923, he was advanced to associate professor and in 1938 he succeeded Dr. Yandell Henderson as professor and director of the Laboratory of Applied Physiology at Yale. He retired in 1956 living at Tabernier, Florida, until his death on April 21, 1959. Dr. Haggard early concerned himself mainly with noxious gases and vapors occurring in industry. He published many papers on the toxicity, absorption, metabolism and elimination of carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, volatile hydrocarbons and other substances. With Yandell Henderson, in 1926, he published the book, Noxious Gases and the Principles of Respiration Influencing Their Action, and developed and introduced the use of carbon dioxide in oxygen for resuscitation. The principles used in study of noxious OWARD
gases were in 1923 applied to anesthetics, mainly ether, resulting in the publication of a series of papers on the absorption, distribution and elimination of volatile anesthetics. As mentioned by Faulconerl, “It is our feeling that the papers of Howard W. Haggard . . . are of vast importance to the student of inhalation anesthesia, and that they are in truth the source of much of our modern knowledge of the mechanism of the action of inhalation agents.” In the 1930’s Dr. Haggard’s research centered on Alcohol. The Yale Center of Alcohol Studies, including research on all phases of the alcohol problem was founded in 1940, and clinics for the treatment of alcoholic patients, a summer school and a journal, The Quarterly Journal of Studies in Alcohol, of which Dr. Haggard was editor, were developed. Dr. Haggard’s interest in medical history led to the publications of several popular books on the subject; best known is his Devils, Drugs and Doctors.
REFERENCE 1. FauIconer A Jr, Keys TE: Foundations of Anesthesiology, Springfield, Illinois, Charles C Thomas, c1965, v. 1, p. 265. These papers originally published in the Journal of Biological Chemist r y for 1924 have been reproduced in Foundations of Anesthesiology, v. I, pp. 322-371.
*Emeritus Professor of the History of Medicine, Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Rochester, Minnesota 55901.
