Tracy Putnam
Tracy Jackson Putnam (1894–1975) was the co-discoverer, together with H. Houston Merritt, of Dilantin for controlling epilepsy.[1]
He graduated from Harvard College in 1915, and then from Harvard medical school in 1920.[2] He worked by the Boston City Hospital and in the New York Neurological Institute at Columbia University. He was promoted to director after his works with phenytoin.[3]
At his time there were quotas for Jewish physicians. He opposed the existence of the quotas. He was forced to resign from Columbia in 1947, maybe because of this.[4] However, other sources mention a "personal tragedy" Putnam went through at that time (presumably the death of his daughter, Lucy Washburn Putnam on September 24, 1947[5]), after which he resigned from Columbia and abandoned all scientific activities.[6]
He studied multiple sclerosis together with Alexandra Adler.[7] He was one of the first persons to propose, as early as the 1930s, a vascular cause for multiple sclerosis,[8] resurrecting the previous works from Eduard von Rindfleisch. The idea remained obscure until the syndrome of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) was associated with the multiple sclerosis in 2008.
References
- ^ Lewis P. Rowland, The Legacy of Tracy J. Putnam and H. Houston Merritt: Modern Neurology in the United States, Arch Neurol. 2009; 66(3):415.
- ^ The Society of Neurological Surgeons, Decease Member, Tracy J. Putnam, MD [1]
- ^ Lewis P. Rowland, The Legacy of Tracy J. Putnam and H. Houston Merritt: Modern Neurology in the United States, N Engl J Med 2009; 360:941–942, February 26, 2009
- ^ Barron H. Lerner, In a Time of Quotas, a Quiet Pose in Defiance
- ^ http://alums.vassar.edu/connect/class/1940s/1948-9/index.html#cca-memoriam
- ^ L. P. Rowland, Epilepsia vol 23(Suppl.I):SI-S4, 1982
- ^ Putnam T and Adler A: Vascular architecture of the lesions of multiple sclerosis. Arch Neurol Psychiat 1937; 38:1
- ^ Putnam T: Evidences of vascular occlusion in multiple sclerosis and encephalomyelitis. Arch Neurol Psychiatry 1937; 37(6):1298–1321.
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