Biographical Memoirs Volume 59 (1990) / Chapter Skim
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Walsh McDermott
Walsh McDermott
Pages 282-307
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From page 283... ...
Until his mid-forties he followed a highly productive career in academic clinical medicine and laboratory investigation. He then decided to shift emphasis and work in the field of public health at the local, national, ant} international levels.
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From page 284... ...
At that time penicillin had not been introducecl into clinical practice, and the mainstay of antisyphilitic treatment was injection of arsenical compounds at weekly intervals over periods of months or years. In the New York Hospital syphilis clinic, McDermott demonstrated his capabilities as physician, teacher, and humane care-giver.
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From page 285... ...
Both McDermotts thus enjoyed productive individual careers, and their friends included not only colleagues from the field of medicine, but also writers, political figures, photographers, and sports executives. THE MCDERMOTT LABORATORY Penicillin In ~ 942 David Barr, chief of medicine at the Cornell—New York Hospital, appointed McDermott head of the Division of Infectious Diseases.
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From page 286... ...
Travelling to Mexico, he also collaborated with health authorities in Guadalajara in devising therapy for such diseases as typhoid fever and brucellosis, comparing the relative effectiveness of the tetracyclines, streptomycin, and chIoramphenicol. Yet flareups of his own tuberculosis kept intervening during these years, necessitating periods of bed rest either in the hospital or at home.
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From page 287... ...
For nearly two clecacies McDermott explored this phenomenon which he had observed clinically in syphilis, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, typhus fever, brucellosis, and more rarely in staphylococcal infections. In certain circumstances a latent microbe can again acquire the ability to reproduce and cause disease within the host.
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From page 288... ...
the bactericidal effect of penicillin against the staphylococcus, and a series of imaginative experiments procluced evidence that here, too, pointed to an effect on the microbe. McDermott suggested that microorganisms became "indifferent" to the drug bY ~ , ~ _ c~ _ J some cnange In term ~pOSSloly analogous to protoplasts)
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From page 289... ...
Their findings favored an enhanced antimicrobial effect greater than a simple additive action in which each drug exerts its elect by its own mechanism. It is interesting to note that McDermott never hac!
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From page 290... ...
~ was, therefore, especially interested to read something he said about this textbook work in 1973, when being interviewed as "Medicine's Man of the Year." The greatest compensation for such work, said McDermott, was "knowing that the volume goes to the remotest parts of the world that someplace, perhaps in an African jungle, some human being is getting correct treatment because a doctor or a nurse has our book." This statement illustrates his sincere concern for the delivery of medical care in underserved segments of the population, at home and abroad. CHANGE IN FOCUS: PUBLIC HEALTH The necessity to carry out some field trials of antimicrobial therapy, plus an interest in the social and political problems in his own metropolitan area, caused McDermott to change the character of his medical work.
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From page 291... ...
The Many Farms Project provided unequivocal evidence of the superiority of isoniazid, which has largely supplanted streptomycin, although other antituberculous drugs of unquestioned value later became available. The success of isoniazid in curing an otherwise lethal infection among the Navajo suggested the possible benefit of bringing other sophisticates!
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From page 292... ...
A pilot project was set up with Kenneth Johnson in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, including day clinics, visiting nurses, and social work services. McDermott used this project in his teaching of public health and arranged for dozens of Cornell medical students to observe and participate.
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From page 293... ...
After his death, Rogers wrote several moving tributes to this friend and colleague, detailing how very great his contribution to the work of the Foundation had been. PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES McDermott was elected to many learned societies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American College of Physicians, American Public Health Association, American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Thoracic Society, Association of American Physicians, Infectious Diseases Society of America, the National Academy of Sciences, and Britain's Royal College of Physicians.
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From page 294... ...
These appointments included: chairman, the Experimental Therapeutics Study Section, NIH, 1947-1953; chairman, Cancer Chemotherapy Committee, NIH, ~953-}954; member, National Advisory Health Council, NTH, 1955-1959; member, National Advisory Council, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NTH, 1960-1963; member, Board of Regents, National Library of Medicine, 1964-1968; consultant, Division of Indian Health, 1965-1968. In the 1960s he chaired several boards and panels concerned with involving American academia and industry in health projects administered under United States foreign aid programs.
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From page 295... ...
McDermott was elected to the NAS in 1967, undoubtedly because of his studies of chemotherapy and his work on the phenomenon of microbial persistence. Soon thereafter he was asked to chair a new planning committee called the
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From page 296... ...
was a prestigious organization affiliated with the NAS but with a diverse membership, to include not only members of the meclical profession but also people with expertise in related fields of economics, law, social sciences, ant! other health care professions such as nursing.
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From page 297... ...
Bruce Memorial Awarc! of the American College of Physicians, anct in 1969, received the Woocirow Wilson Award of Princeton University "to a Princeton alumnus in recognition of clistinguished achievement in the nation's service...." In 1970, the College of Physicians and Surgeons' Alumni Association gave him its Alumni GoIct Mecial Award "for clistinguished achievement in medicine...." In 1975, the Association of American Physicians gave him the Kober Medal in "full realization of the commanding knowledge in medicine...." In 1979 he received the Blue Cross-Blue Shield Association's National Health Achievement Award "for his monumental contribution to the education of generations of physicians .
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From page 298... ...
Burns Amberson Lecture of the National Tuberculosis Association, 1962; the Holme Lecture, University College Hospital, University of London, 1967; the Barnwell Memorial Lecture of the National Tuberculosis Association, 1969; the Heath Clark Lecture, Lonclon School of Preventive Medicine and Tropical Hygiene, London, 1971; the William S Paley Lecture, Cornell Medical College, 1967.
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From page 299... ...
. Something quite new has been added to the social contract namely the idea that each of us as an individual bears a moral responsibility for the collective acts of our particular society.
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From page 300... ...
The parenteral use of sodium lactate solution in the prevention of renal complications from parenterally administered sodium sulfadiazine.
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From page 301... ...
Carter. The treatment of pneumococcic pneumonia with orally administered penicillin.
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From page 302... ...
Ruiz-Sanchez. Antimicrobial therapy in typhoid fever.
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From page 303... ...
Phys., 65:191. 1953 Antimicrobial therapy 47:472.
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From page 304... ...
Neoplastic involvement of the meninges with low cerebrospinal fluid glucose concentrations simulating tuberculous meningitis.
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From page 305... ...
Dis., 81:279. Antimicrobial therapy of pulmonary tuberculosis.
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From page 306... ...
Presidential address delivered at the meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. In: Antimicrobial Agents &?
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From page 307... ...
Health care experiment at Many Farms. Science, 175:23.
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