Harvey Cushing

Cushing was born in Cleveland, Ohio. His parents were Elizabeth Maria "Betsey M." Williams (sister of Edward and Charles Williams) and Henry Kirke Cushing,{{Cite book |url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |title=Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783–2002: Part 1 (A–J) |author=C D Waterston |author2=A Macmillan Shearer |publisher=Royal Society of Edinburgh |isbn=090219884X |date=July 2006 |access-date=18 September 2015 |archive-date=24 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |url-status=dead}} a physician whose ancestors came to Hingham, Massachusetts, as Puritans in the 17th century.Lincoln, Solomon Jr.; Gill, Caleb Jr. [https://archive.org/details/historytownhing00lincgoog/page/n52 History of the Town of Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts], Farmer and Brown, Hingham, 1827. Harvey, the fourth generation of a line of physicians founded by his great-grandfather Dr. David Cushing (1768–1814), was the youngest of ten children.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/genealogyofcushi1905cush/page/506/mode/2up |title=The genealogy of the Cushing family, an account of the ancestors and descendants of Matthew Cushing, who came to America in 1638 |author=Cushing, James Stevenson |publisher=Montreal, The Perrault Printing Co. |date=1905 |access-date=14 Feb 2023}}

As a child, Cushing attended the Cleveland Manual Training School, which expanded his interest in science and medicine. The school's emphasis on experimental training and a "physics-focused" approach to education played an important role in influencing Cushing toward a career in medical surgery. The school's manual dexterity training program also contributed to Cushing's future success as a surgeon.Fulton, John. Harvey Cushing A Biography. Springfield, Illinois. 1946. Print.

He graduated with an B.A. degree in 1891 from Yale University, where he was a member of Scroll and Key and Delta Kappa Epsilon (Phi chapter). He studied medicine at Harvard Medical School and earned his medical degree in 1895. Cushing completed his internship at Massachusetts General Hospital and then did a residency in surgery under the guidance of pioneering surgeon William Stewart Halsted at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

He subsequently trained in neurological surgery abroad under Emil Theodor Kocher at Bern and Charles Scott Sherrington at Liverpool.

Cushing began his career in private practice in Baltimore. During his time with Kocher, he first encountered the Cushing reflex, which describes the relationship between blood pressure and intracranial pressure. At the age of 32, he was made associate professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and was placed in full charge of cases of surgery of the central nervous system. He wrote numerous monographs on surgery of the brain and spinal column and made important contributions in bacteriology. He conducted (with Kocher) a study of intracerebral pressure and (with Sherrington) contributed much to the localization of the cerebral centers.

In Baltimore, he developed the method of operating with local anesthesia, and his paper on its use in hernia gave him a European reputation. In 1911, he was appointed surgeon-in-chief at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.{{Cite EB1922|wstitle=Cushing, Harvey}} He became a professor of surgery at the Harvard Medical School starting in 1912.{{cite magazine |date=April 17, 1939 |title=Brainman |url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,761070,00.html |url-status=dead |magazine=Time |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130204093345/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,761070,00.html |archive-date=February 4, 2013 |access-date=March 21, 2010}} In 1913, he was made an honorary F.R.C.S. (London). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1914.{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter C|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterC.pdf| publisher= American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=April 14, 2011}} In 1915, before the Clinical Congress of Surgeons in Boston, he showed the possibility of influencing stature by operating on the pituitary gland. In 1924, Cushing was awarded the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh.

Shortly after the entry of the United States into the World War I, Cushing was commissioned as a major in the U.S. Army Medical Corps on May 5, 1917. He was director of the U.S. base hospital attached to the British expeditionary Force in France. Cushing also served as the head of a surgical unit in a French military hospital outside of Paris. During his time at the French military hospital, Cushing experimented with the use of electromagnets to extract metallic shrapnel fragments that were lodged within the brain.{{Cite journal | pmid = 23101174| year = 2012| last1 = Ellis| first1 = H| title = Harvey Cushing: Cushing's disease| journal = Journal of Perioperative Practice| volume = 22| issue = 9| pages = 298–9| doi = 10.1177/175045891202200906| s2cid = 3422885}} He was mentioned in a dispatch by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig in November 1917.Harvard's Military Record during the World War. Harvard Alumni Association. 1921. pg. 238.{{Lives of WWI | id= 5380233 | name= Harvey Cushing }}

On June 6, 1918, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was assigned as senior consultant in neurological surgery for the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe. In early October, while in France, he came down with what he described as "the grippe,"{{cite book |last=Cushing |first=Harvey |url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/bvjq468c/items |title=From a surgeon's journal, 1915–1918 |publisher=London: Constable, 1936 |year=1936 |access-date=October 29, 2023}} which was probably the Spanish flu. He would never fully recover.{{cite book |last=Barry |first=John |url=https://www.johnmbarry.com/the_great_influenza__the_story_of_the_deadliest_pandemic_in_history__133171.htm |title=The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History |publisher=Viking Press |year=2004 |access-date=October 29, 2023}} He attained the rank of colonel (O-6) on October 23, 1918. In that capacity, he treated Lieutenant Edward Revere Osler, who was fatally wounded during the third battle of Ypres. Lieutenant Osler was the son of Sir William Osler.{{cite journal|last= Starling|first= P H|title= The case of Edward Revere Osler|date=March 2003|journal= Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps|volume= 149|issue= 1|pages= 27–29|pmid= 12743923|doi=10.1136/jramc-149-01-05|doi-access= free}}

Cushing returned to the United States in February 1919 and was discharged on April 9, 1919. In recognition of his service during the war, Cushing was invested as a Companion of the Bath by the British government. In 1923, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by the U.S. Army.Decorations of the United States Army, 1862–1926. War Department. Office of the Adjutant General. Washington. 1927. pg. 693.

Cushing authored the Pulitzer prize-winning biography, Life of Sir William Osler (London: Oxford University Press, 1925).{{Cite web|title=The Pulitzer Prizes|url=https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/harvey-cushing}}

From 1933 to 1937, when he retired, he worked at the Yale School of Medicine as Sterling Professor of Neurology.

File:Harvey Cushing's tomb, Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland - 03.jpg

Cushing married his Cleveland childhood friend Katharine Stone Crowell (1870–1949), granddaughter of Ohio congressman John Crowell, on June 10, 1902. They had five children, including three daughters famed for their beauty and collectively known as the 'Cushing sisters':

• William Harvey Cushing (1903–1926) (died in an automobile accident while a student at Yale University)
• Mary Benedict "Minnie" Cushing (1906–1978), who married Vincent Astor and later James Whitney Fosburgh;{{cite news |date=November 8, 1978 |title=Mary Fosburgh, 72. One of the Cushing Sisters and a Leader in Arts. Raised Funds During War |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/06/archives/mary-fosburgh-72-one-of-cushing-sisters-and-a-leader-in-arts-raised.html |access-date=March 21, 2010}}
• Betsey Cushing (1908–1998), who married James Roosevelt and later John Hay Whitney;{{cite news |last=Nemy |first=Enid |date=March 26, 1998 |title=Betsey Cushing Whitney Is Dead at 89 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/26/nyregion/betsey-cushing-whitney-is-dead-at-89.html?pagewanted=1 |access-date=March 21, 2010}}
• Henry Kirke Cushing (1910–1983), who married Marjorie Estabrook in 1936.{{cite news |date=April 15, 1936 |title=NUPTIALS PLANNED BY MISS ESTABROOK; Her Marriage to Henry Kirke Cushing Will Take Place in Marion, Mass., Church. CEREMONY TO BE MAY 30 Mrs. James Roosevelt, Sister of the Bridegroom-Elect, Will Be Matron of Honor. |work=The New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1936/04/15/85305181.pdf |access-date=June 26, 2018}}
• Barbara "Babe" Cushing (1915–1978), the socialite wife of Stanley Grafton Mortimer and later William S. Paley.{{cite news |last=Nemy |first=Enid |date=July 7, 1978 |title=Barbara Cushing Paley Dies at 63; Style Pace-Setter in Three Decades; Symbol of Taste |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/07/archives/barbara-cushing-paley-dies-at-63-style-pacesetter-in-three-decades.html |access-date=March 21, 2010}}

Cushing died on October 7, 1939, in New Haven, Connecticut, from complications of a myocardial infarction.{{cite news |date=October 8, 1939 |title=Dr. Cushing Dead; Brain Surgeon, 70. A Pioneer Who Won Fame as Founder of New School of Neuro-Surgery. Discovered Malady Affecting Pituitary Gland. Was Noted Teacher and author |work=The New York Times |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30915F73C5A177A93CAA9178BD95F4D8385F9 |access-date=March 21, 2010}} He was interred at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.{{cite news |date=October 11, 1939 |title=Services for Surgeon Held in Cleveland Cemetery |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1939/10/11/archives/cushing-burial-rites-services-for-surgeon-held-in-cleveland.html |access-date=March 22, 2010}} An autopsy performed on Cushing revealed that his brain harbored a colloid cyst of the third ventricle.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Cushing developed many of the basic surgical techniques for operating on the brain. This established him as one of the foremost leaders and experts in the field. Under his influence, neurosurgery became a new and autonomous surgical discipline.

File:Cushing.jpg, Cleveland]]

• He considerably improved the survival of patients after difficult brain operations for intracranial tumors.
• He used X-ray to diagnose brain tumors.
• He used electrical stimuli for the study of the human sensory cortex.
• He played a pivotal role in development of the Bovie electrocautery tool with William T. Bovie, a physicist.
• He was the world's leading teacher of neurosurgeons in the first decades of the 20th century.

Arguably, Cushing's greatest contribution came with his introduction to North America of blood pressure measurement. Upon visiting colleague Scipione Riva-Rocci, an Italian physician, Cushing was astonished by Riva-Rocci's non-invasive way of measuring intra-arterial pressure. In 1896, Riva-Rocci developed a wall-mounted mercury manometer linked to a balloon-inflated cuff that would measure the pressure needed to compress arterial systolic pressure, i.e. systolic blood pressure measurement. Riva-Rocci's design was based on a more primitive version developed by French physician Pierre Potain. Cushing returned to the US with a sample of Riva-Rocci's sphygmomanometer and blood pressure measurement became a vital sign. The use of the Riva-Rocci sphygmomanometer as a diagnostic tool rapidly spread across the US and Western world, a direct contribution by Harvey Cushing. The device's use continued until Russian physician Nikolai Korotkov included diastolic blood pressure measurement in 1905 (after he discovered the famed "Korotkoff sounds") with his improved sphygmomanometer, which also replaced the mercury manometer with a smaller, round dial manometer.Mangione, Salvatore (2000) Physical Diagnosis Secrets. Hanley & Belfus. {{ISBN|1560531649}}

File:Dr Harvey Cushing Edmund Tarbell 1908.jpeg]] Cushing's name is commonly associated with his most famous discovery, Cushing's disease. In 1912 he reported in a study an endocrinological syndrome caused by a malfunction of the pituitary gland which he termed "polyglandular syndrome." He published his findings in 1932 as "The Basophil Adenomas of the Pituitary Body and Their Clinical Manifestations: pituitary Basophilism".{{cite journal|first=Harvey|last=Cushing|title=The basophil adenomas of the pituitary body and their clinical manifestations (pituitary basophilism)| journal=Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital |volume= 50| pages= 137–95| year= 1932 }} Reprinted in {{cite journal|first=Harvey|last=Cushing|title=The basophil adenomas of the pituitary body and their clinical manifestations (pituitary basophilism)| pmc=2387613| pmid=19310569| issue=4| volume=44| date=April 1969| journal=Ann R Coll Surg Engl| pages=180–1}}

Cushing was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1914.{{Cite web |date=2023-02-09 |title=Harvey Williams Cushing |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/harvey-williams-cushing |access-date=2023-07-12 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}} In 1917, Cushing was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences.{{Cite web |title=Harvey Cushing |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/20001009.html |access-date=2023-07-12 |website=www.nasonline.org}} Cushing was also awarded the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for a book recounting the life of one of the fathers of modern medicine, Sir William Osler.{{cite journal|last= Cushing|first= Harvey|title= The Life of Sir William Osler|journal= Bulletin of the Medical Library Association|volume= 14|issue= 4|pages= 50|url= https://archive.org/details/b29825672|year= 1925|location= Oxford| publisher= Clarendon Press|oclc= 268160|pmid= 16015960|pmc= 234817}} In 1930, Cushing was awarded the Lister Medal for his contributions to surgical science. As part of the award, he delivered the Lister Memorial Lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in July 1930.The lecture is available at: [http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(01)09081-X/fulltext Neurohypophysial mechanisms from a clinical standpoint] Cushing, H., Lancet (Lond.), 1930, ii, 119–147; 175–184.For a picture of Cushing's Lister Medal, and an offprint of the lecture, see [http://www.ehistorybuff.com/cushingsignedlisterlecture08.html Harvey Cushing, M.D. Legendary Neurosurgeon] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081231055249/http://www.ehistorybuff.com/cushingsignedlisterlecture08.html |date=December 31, 2008 }} ehistorybuff.com (accessed February 17, 2009) That same year, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Harvey+Cushing&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-07-12 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}} Cushing was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1934, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.{{Cite journal | last1 = Cannon | first1 = W. B. | author-link = Walter Bradford Cannon| title = Harvey (Williams) Cushing. 1869–1939 | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1941.0003 | journal = Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 3 | issue = 9 | pages = 276–290| year = 1941 | title-link = Harvey Williams Cushing | s2cid = 70621786 }} He served as president of the History of Science Society in 1934.The History of Science Society [http://www.hssonline.org/about/society_presidents.html "The Society: Past Presidents of the History of Science Society"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212134009/http://www.hssonline.org/about/society_presidents.html |date=December 12, 2013 }}. Retrieved December 4, 2013 Cushing was also a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, nominated at least 38 times.{{cite journal | author = Hansson N, Schlich T | year = 2015 | title = Highly Qualified Loser"? Harvey Cushing and the Nobel Prize | journal = J Neurosurg | volume = 122 | issue = 4| pages = 976–79 | doi = 10.3171/2014.11.JNS14990 | pmid = 25554824 | doi-access = free }}

The World War II Liberty Ship {{SS|Harvey Cushing}} was named in his honor. Cushing General Hospital (now Cushing Memorial Park) in Framingham, Massachusetts, was named for him.

In 1988, the United States Postal Service issued a 45-cent postage stamp in his honor, as part of the Great Americans series.Scott catalog # 2188.

File:Cushing ventricular cannula.png

Cushing developed many surgical instruments that are in use today, most notably Cushing forceps and the Cushing ventricular cannula. The forceps instrument is used to grasp the thick tissues of the scalp during cranial surgery and the cannula is used to enter the brain ventricles for CSF drainage. He also developed a surgical magnet while working with the Harvard Medical Unit in France during World War I to extract shrapnel from the heads of wounded soldiers.

The Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library[http://www.med.yale.edu/library/subjects/digital.html Digital Library Collections of the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050529033355/http://www.med.yale.edu/library/subjects/digital.html |date=May 29, 2005 }} at Yale University at Yale University contains extensive collections in the field of medicine and the history of medicine. Cushing's long-time personal secretary, Madeline Stanton, played a major role in organizing his rare book donations, along with those from John F. Fulton and Arnold C. Klebs, to form the library.{{Cite journal|last=Wilson|first=LG|date=July 1981|title=Obituaries: Madeline Earle Stanton|journal=Bulletin of the Medical Library Association|volume=69|issue=3|pages=357–358|pmid=7018632|pmc=226844}} In 2005, the library released portions of its collection online, including the Peter Parker Collection which consists of a collection of portrait engravings and 83 mid-19th-century oil paintings rendered by artist Lam Qua of Chinese tumor patients, and a biography of Harvey Cushing by John F. Fulton. In 2010, Yale placed on display Cushing's collection of brain specimens.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/health/24brain.html|title=Inside Neurosurgery's Rise|work=The New York Times | date= August 23, 2010}} There is also a collection of his papers at the National Library of Medicine.{{cite web|url=http://oculus.nlm.nih.gov/cushing183|title=Harvey Cushing Correspondence 1930–1939|publisher=National Library of Medicine}}

• Walter Dandy, the first pediatric neurosurgeon and the developer of pneumoencephalography
• Leo M. Davidoff,{{cite journal |pmid=22725989 | doi=10.3171/2012.4.JNS111211 | volume=117 | issue=3 | title=Leo Max Davidoff: his formative years and participation in the MacMillan Arctic Expedition | year=2012 | journal=J. Neurosurg. | pages=447–54 | author = Wisoff HS}} founder of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
• Norman Dott{{Cite web|url=http://lhsa.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-life-of-norman-dott-examined.html|title=Lothian Health Services Archive: The Life of Norman Dott examined|date=November 16, 2012}}
• Louise Eisenhardt, Neuropathologist and curator of Cushing's brain tumor registry with more than 2000 specimens.{{cite web|title=Louise Eisenhardt|url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_97.html|website=Changing the face of medicine|publisher=NIH|accessdate=13 September 2014}}
• Wilder Penfield, pioneer neurosurgeon and founder of the Montreal Neurological Institute

• The Pituitary Body and its Disorders (1912)
• Tumours of the Nervus Acousticus (1917)
• Blood Vessel Tumours of the Brain (1928)
• Consecratio Medici and other papers (1928)
• From a surgeon's journal, 1915–1918 (1936)
• The Medical Career (1940)
• A Visit to Le Puy-En-Velay (1945){{cite book|last= Cushing|first= Harvey|title= A Visit to Le Puy-En-Velay|year= 1944|location= Cleveland| publisher= The Rowfant Club}}{{cite journal|url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/550910|title=JAMA Book Review: A Visit to Le Puy-En-Velay; 1945|journal=Archives of Internal Medicine|date=February 1945|volume=75|issue=2|pages=143|publisher=The Journal of the American Medical Association, 1945;75(2):143|doi=10.1001/archinte.1945.00210260071009| access-date=November 7, 2017|url-access=subscription}}{{cite web|url=http://library.medicine.yale.edu/cushingcenter/exploring/artist|title=Cushing as Artist|publisher=Yale University, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, Cushing Center| access-date=November 7, 2017}}

• History of medicine
• Timeline of medicine and medical technology

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{commons category|Harvey W. Cushing}}

• Fulton, John F. [https://archive.today/20121215192630/http://cushing.med.yale.edu/cushing/ Harvey Cushing: A Biography], Charles C. Thomas (Springfield, Illinois), 1946.
• Harvey Williams Cushing Papers in the Yale University Library (MS 160). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
• Bliss, Michael. Harvey Cushing: a Life in Surgery, Oxford University Press, 2005. ([https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1553499/ book review])
• [http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/Cushing_Harvey.pdf National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150620064217/http://doc.med.yale.edu/historical/cushing/index.html Harvey Cushing: A Journey Through His Life]
• [https://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/harvey-cushing-fonds Harvey Cushing Fonds]. Osler Library of the History of Medicine. McGill University.
• [https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/med00616/catalog Collected papers of Harvey Cushing, 1923–1939 (inclusive)]. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.

{{PulitzerPrize BiographyorAutobiographyAuthors 1926–1950}}

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