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Franklin P. Mall

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Franklin Paine Mall (September 28, 1862 – November 17, 1917) was an American anatomist and pathologist known for his research and literature in the fields of anatomy and embryology. Given his relationship with William H. Welch, Mall was granted a fellowship for the Department of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University and later returned to be the first head of the anatomy department at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.[1] After successfully requesting for the funds for the founding of a department of embryology at Johns Hopkins University, Mall acted as the first chief of the Department of Embryology of the Carnegie Institution for Science.[2] He later donated his collection of human embryos that he started as a postgraduate student to the Carnegie Institution for Science.[1]

Biography

Early Life

Franklin Mall was born to German immigrants, Franz Mall and Louise Christine Miller, on a farm in Belle Plaine, Iowa. At the age of ten, Mall's mother died. His father's second wife showed no affection towards him. Mall was unhappy in his childhood and he had little opportunity to challenge his intellect either at home or school. Though there was one teacher at a local academy who greatly impacted Mall's learning experience and life. Mall wrote about John McCarthy in a letter to one of his nephews, saying that he hated history as a child, but Mr. McCarthy "showed [him] he liked it." His father, given his German heritage, knew the importance of learning. With Mall's newfound appreciation of study, his father helped him reach higher education.[3]

Education

Mall was accepted into the Department of Medicine at the University of Michigan. His decision was likely influenced by his family physician who had received his degree from the University of Michigan.[4] During his time at Ann Arbor, Mall was drawn to three of his professors, Corydon L. Ford, professor of anatomy, Victor C. Vaughn, biochemist and bacteriologist, and Henry Sewall, physiologist.[2] He wrote that he was impressed by their extensive knowledge in their respective fields and their teaching style. They presented only facts and not opinions during lecture and gave laboratory experiments for the students to further cement the knowledge gained from lecture. Mall also wrote about the majority of other students in his class that preferred to simply memorize information given to them by professors. Mall himself preferred the problem solving and individual thinking and reasoning. Mall described those who wanted information drilled into them for the sole purpose of a career as "inferior students." The differences between those students and teaching styles likely shaped his later push for educational reform.[3] Mall graduated from the University of Michigan on June 28, 1883.[4]

After receiving his medical degree from the University of Michigan, Mall went to Germany in 1884 to further his education. He spent his first year abroad in Heidelberg to study ophthalmology and he worked on the nervous system and the eye. In Germany, Mall found students to be better educated than him and were planning their own course of studies. He noted that he could study pathological histology before taking normal histology. Mall heavily valued the freedom of choice and liberties medical education and Germany provided for him compared to his education in America.[4][5]

In 1884, Mall studied pathology and ophthalmology in Heidelberg.[6] After a year, in 1885, Mall went to Leipzig to begin his career in research under the guidance of Wilhelm His. His presented Mall with a project concerning the gill-arches in a chick. Mall's study found contradictory results to His' viewpoint. He concluded that the thymus develops from the endoderm while His believed it arose from the ectoderm. Mall's study of the thymus was published much to the discontent of His. His restudied this issue two years later and acknowledged the validity of Mall's work.[7] During his time with His, Mall also started a collection of human embryos that he would continue for the rest of his career.[2]

Under the recommendation of His, Mall moved to Carl Ludwig's laboratory later in 1885. Ludwig assigned Mall to study the blood vessels and lymphatics of the villus of the small intestine. With Ludwig's assistance, Mall learned methods of injecting blood vessels and lymphatics.[3][7] Mall took apart the layers of the intestine to carefully study the blood supply of each layer and the organ as a whole. He used this knowledge to construct a model that showed how all the parts of the organ including the tissues, muscle coats, etc. got their blood. His studies also led him to conclude that the blood vessels of the intestine provided equal amounts of blood to each part of the organ. He simplified the pattern of blood vessels into a model of one artery that branches into five orders. The basis of the model was vessels of a low order (first or second) gave rise downstream to vessels in a higher order. Mall also showed that this pattern of blood vessels could be applied to the blood supply of all organs. Mall's research of the vascular and lymphatic system of the intestine was so influential that current study of the intestine would surely include some amount of Mall's studies. Mall developed a strong relationship between both His and Ludwig and influenced his immense affinity to scientific research. He later spread his focus on laboratory research to the American education system.[3]

Personal Life

Mall first met Mabel Glover while teaching his first class at John's Hopkins. Mall married her in 1894, with whom he fathered two daughters.[2]

Career

Early Career

Franklin Mall returned to America in 1886 and became a fellow in pathology at Johns Hopkins University under William H. Welch. He continued his study of the anatomy of the intestine and stomach.[2] He also expressed interest in bacteriology and connective tissue. One of the discoveries Mall made as a fellow was that certain bacteria can digest connective tissue.[8] He also collaborated on research with William Halstead. Mall's research on the structure of connective tissue led to the development of a new method of surgically suturing the intestine by Halstead.[2] In 1888, Mall became a Professor of Pathology.[4] After a three year stay in Baltimore, Mall accepted an offer from Stanley Hall for the position of adjunct professor of anatomy at Clark University. While at Clark, Mall used the Born wax-plate method to create the first model of a human embryo in the United States, discovered the vasomotor nerves of the portal vein, and founded an embryological research program at the university.[1] In 1892, Mall followed Charles Otis Whitman to Chicago, becoming the Professor of Anatomy at the University of Chicago. He only taught for one year in Chicago before accepting a Professorship at the newly opened Johns Hopkins medical school.[5]

Return to Johns Hopkins University

In 1893, Welch asked Mall to become the first Professor of Anatomy at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Mall accepted his offer and returned to Baltimore to continue his research and teaching.[1] As the first head of the Department of Anatomy, Mall chose a small, brick building as the place of research and study for students in the department.[9] He continued his anatomical research of the structure of organs as well as research on embryology.[3][9] Mall also made advancements in the methods and conditions in a laboratory, specifically concerning dissections. Since human cadavers would inevitably decompose, he began finding methods for the preservation of humans and other animals. Prior to Mall's appointment to the Department of Anatomy, medical schools would only conduct dissections when the "cold weather sets in." Through experimentation on dog cadavers, Mall developed a method of embalming and cold storage that allowed for the preservation of biological materials. This method spread to other medical schools and made the previous practices obsolete.[5][10] Mall was also given the freedom to run the department and teach the students according to his ideals of medical education.[4]

Educational Reforms

Given his freedom as the Chair of the Anatomy Department, Franklin Mall began to reform anatomy education not only at Johns Hopkins, but also hopefully at all universities in America. When Mall first began teaching, he described the current method of anatomical education as poor and especially focused on the lack of practical work such as dissection.[11] The curriculum he set up rarely involved lecture. He believed students learned best by teaching themselves.[10] Mall believed the greatest anatomical problems involve human anatomy so students should have the opportunity to freely dissect and observe the human body.[11] He spent his early times in the Johns Hopkins Anatomy Department developing the method of embalming cadavers so his students could have easy access to objects for dissection. Mall's students would study using the cadavers, textbooks, and models provided. In addition, instructors including himself, were always present to assist the students during their practical work. His method produced many famous, well-educated anatomists that would follow in his footsteps. One of Mall's students, Simon Flexner, noted that applying Mall's approach to teaching anatomy at another university did not always achieve the same results. One crucial component of Mall's curriculum was the availability of a guide for all the students. His and the other instructors teaching ability was a key to the success of his Anatomy Department.[10] 

One of Mall's other goals was to raise the prestige of anatomists and the study of anatomy in America. During his time teaching, anatomy was seen as a low level science and simply a prerequisite for the highly respected occupation of surgery. Mall believed the study of anatomy could and should be a stand-alone subject. He expanded the Anatomy Department curriculum to include histology, histogenesis, and embryology. Mall and his collaborators' and students' research had a large influence on medicine and its advancement. Thus he showed that anatomy alone can impact the field of medicine as much as surgery.[11]

Mall's call for educational reform reached further than just the field of anatomy. Mall argued that the biggest problem in medical education lie in the chairs and professors. Many professors had their own medical practices and did not have enough time to teach students.[11] Mall supported the idea that professors should not have their own private practice and should spend most of their time on teaching and research. He joined the likes of William H. Welch, Abraham Flexner, and John D. Rockefeller to support their ideals for medical education reform.[12]

In 1905, Mall was elected as a member of the advisory board to the Wistar Institute of Anatomy Biology.[13]

Scientific Research

In his 1905 publication in the American Journal of Anatomy, Mall was the first to show that both the main arteries and the primary veins of the embryo pig could be reached by via the delivery of India Ink directly into the blood vessels of the liver.[14][15] 

In 1907, Mall identified a precursor of the internal jugular vein in the head, naming it as the anterior cardinal vein.In addition, Mall showed that the anterior cardinal vein was implicated in the formation of dural sinuses.[16] 

In 1910, Mall's article entitled "Determination of the age of human embryos and fetuses" in the Manual of Human Embryology, Vol 1, Mall demonstrated that the nascent atrium of the heart could be identified based on the close proximity of endothelium to the heart muscle. This is in contrast to the significant distance observed between the endothelium and the heart muscle in other localities in the embryonic heart.

In 1913, Mall developed an empirical method for calculating the age of a human fetus.[13][17] Namely,

Embryo Age (days) = sqrt(Total Foetal Length(cm) X 100)

Legacy

Following Mall's death in 1917, the cumulative embryologic collections of Mall and Wilhelm His, Sr. were presented to the Carnegie Institute of Embryology in Baltimore. In 1973, the collection was transferred to the University of California at Davis, where it remains till today.

Embryology

Department of Embryology

Mall's exploits under the tutelage of Wilhelm His had earned him an election to the International Neurological Commission, where he served as the representative of the United States. Mall continued to advocate for the establishment of national embryological institutes, embodying the same aspirations as his mentor. In his heartfelt proposal to the Carnegie Institute for Science entitled "Plea for an Institute of Human Embryology," Mall juxtaposed the exploits in the field of astronomy with his own specialty, embryology.[18] He noted the comparatively slower advancements in anatomy and embryology despite the larger amount of faculty and resources present within the field. In addition, he criticized the implementation of policies that established full-time teaching faculty, treating their classroom obligations as an obstacle to the scientific advancement of these fields.[19] Mall also championed the recruitment of scientific talents and the organization of conducive research institutes such that "science may profit most by their efforts."[19] In addition, Mall described the institute as a catalyst for a consolidation of embryologic collections which were scattered, poorly maintained, and possessed insufficient detail alone at that time.

As a result, Mall successfully obtained a $15,000 grant to found and chair the Department of Embryology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, that was to be housed in the Johns Hopkins University campus.

Publications

  1. Franklin P. Mall (1891). "A human embryo twenty-six days old". Jour. Morphol. 5: 459-480.
  2. Franklin P. Mall (1903). "Note on the collection of human embryos in the Anatomical Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University". Johns Hopkins Hosp. Bull. 14: No. 143.
  3. Franklin P. Mall (1905). "On the development of the blood vessels of the brain in the human embryo". Am. J. Anat. 4.[14]
  4. Franklin P. Mall (1906). "A study of the structural unit of the liver". Dev. Dynam. 5, 3, 227-308.
  5. Rose G. Harrison, M. J. Greenman, Franklin P. Mall, C. M. Jackson (1907). "Observations of the living developing never fiber". Anat. Record. 1, 5, 116-128.
  6. Franklin P. Mall (1907). "On measuring human embryos". Anat. Record. No. 6.
  7. Franklin P. Mall (1908). "A study of the causes underlying the origin of human monsters". Jour. Morphol. 19: 3-368.
  8. Franklin P. Mall (1909). "On several anatomical characters of the human brain, said to vary according to race and sex, with especial reference to the weight of the frontal lobe". Dev. Dynam. 9, 1, 1-32.
  9. Franklin P. Mall, Franz Keibel (1910). Manual of Human Embryology, Vol 1. Philadelphia and London, J.B. Lippincott Company.
  10. Franklin P. Mall (1911). "On the muscular architecture of the ventricles of the human heart". Dev. Dynam. 11, 3, 211-266.
  11. Franklin P. Mall (1912). "On the development of the human heart". Am. J. Anat. 13
  12. Franklin P. Mall, Franz Keibel (1912). Manual of Human Embryology, Vol 2. Philadelphia and London, J.B. Lippincott Company.
  13. Franklin P. Mall (1912). "Aneurysm of the membraneous septum projecting into the right atrium". Anat. Record. 6, 7, 291-298.
  14. Franklin P. Mall (1915). "On the fate of the human embryo in tubal pregnancy". Contributions to Embryology. 1, No. 1.
  15. Franklin P. Mall (1916). "The human magma reticule in normal and in pathological development". Contributions to Embryology. 4, No 10: 5-25.
  16. Franklin P. Mall (1917). "Cyclopia in the human embryo". Contributions to Embryology. 6, No. 15.

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Franklin Paine Mall". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2017-03-08. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f Buettner, Kimberly (2007-11-01). "Franklin Paine Mall". The Embryo Project Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2017-03-08. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e Sabin, Florence. "Biographical Memoir of Franklin Paine Mall" (PDF). National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs. 16.
  4. ^ a b c d e Hill, Mark. "Embryology History - Franklin Mall". UNSW Embryology. Retrieved 2017-03-12. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  5. ^ a b c Meyer, Arthur. Franklin Paine Mall: An Appreciation. BiblioLife. ISBN 1110793618.
  6. ^ Geisson, Gerald (1987). Physiology in the American Context, 1850-1940. American Physiological Society. ISBN 0-683-03446-4.
  7. ^ a b Sabin, Florence (1918). "Franklin Paine Mall: A Review of His Scientific Achievement". Science. 47: 254–261.
  8. ^ Welch, William (1918). "Memorial Services in Honor of Franklin Paine Mall, Professor of Anatomy, Johns Hopkins University, 1893 to 1917". Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin. 29: 111.
  9. ^ a b "Prof. Franklin P. Mall" (PDF). Nature. 100: 328. 1917.
  10. ^ a b c Flexner, Simon (1918). "Dr. Franklin P. Mall: An Appreciation". Science. 47: 249–254.
  11. ^ a b c d Mall, Franklin (1907). "On Some Points of Importance to Anatomists" (PDF). Science. 25: 121–125.
  12. ^ Bryan, Charles (2002). "The Choice: Lewellys F. Barker and the Full-Time Plan". Annals of Internal Medicine. 137.
  13. ^ a b Publications. Wistar Institute Of Anatomy Biology. 1907.
  14. ^ a b "On the Development of the Blood-Vessels of the Brain in the Human Embryo". American Journal of Anatomy. 4. 1905.
  15. ^ Sabin, Florence (1915). "On the Fate of the Posterior Cardinal Veins and Their Relation to the Development of the Vena Cava and Azygos in the Embryo Pig". Contributions to Embryology. 3: 5–32.
  16. ^ Sabin, Florence (1917). "Origin and Development of the Primitive Vessels of the Chick and of the Pig". Contributions to Embryology. 6: 61–124.
  17. ^ Needham, Joseph (1931). Chemical Embryology. New York: The MacMillan Co. pp. 368–400.
  18. ^ Magoun, H. W. (2003). American Neuroscience in the Twentieth Century. CRC Press. pp. 86–87. ISBN 9789026519383.
  19. ^ a b Mall, Franklin (1913). "A Plea for an Institute of Human Embryology". The Journal of the American Medical Association. 60: 1599–1601.
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