Tracy Putnam
{{Short description|American medical researcher}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name =Tracy Putnam
| birth_date = {{birth date|1894|04|14}}
| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1975|03|29|1894|04|14}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| nationality = American
| alma_mater =Harvard College
Harvard Medical School
| fields = Neuroscience
| known_for = Co-discovering Dilantin
|workplaces =New York Neurological Institute
}}
Tracy Jackson Putnam (April 14, 1894 – March 29, 1975) among other things was a co-discoverer of Dilantin for controlling epilepsy.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.
Education
Putnam graduated from Harvard College in 1915, and then from Harvard Medical School in 1920.{{cite web|url=http://www.societyns.org/society/bio.aspx?MemberID=2839|title=The Society of Neurological Surgeons|website=Societyns.org|access-date=20 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180829110230/http://www.societyns.org/society/bio.aspx?MemberID=2839|archive-date=2018-08-29|url-status=live}}
Career
Putnam worked for the Boston City Hospital and in the New York Neurological Institute at Columbia University. He was promoted to director after his work with phenytoin (Dilantin).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 In 1938, people including himself and H. Houston Merritt discovered phenytoin's usefulness for controlling seizures, without the sedative effects associated with phenobarbital.
According to Goodman and Gilman's Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics:
In contrast to the earlier accidental discovery of the antiseizure properties of potassium bromide and phenobarbital, phenytoin was the product of a search among nonsedative structural relatives of phenobarbital for agents capable of suppressing electroshock convulsions in laboratory animals.{{ cite book | title = Goodman and Gilman's Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics | edition = 10th | location = New York | publisher = McGraw-Hill | year = 2001 }}
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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/health/26quot.html|title=When Jewish Doctors Faced Quotas, a Pose in Defiance|last=Lerner|first=Barron H.|date=2009-05-25|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-06-22|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} 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),{{cite web|url=http://alums.vassar.edu/connect/class/1940s/1948-9/index.html#cca-memoriam|title=1948/49 - Office of Alumnae/i Affairs & Development (OAAD) - Vassar College|website=Alums.vassar.edu|access-date=20 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150817174017/http://alums.vassar.edu/connect/class/1940s/1948-9/index.html#cca-memoriam|archive-date=2015-08-17|url-status=live}} after which he resigned from Columbia and abandoned all scientific activities.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ilae.org/visitors/Documents/PutnamTJ1894-1975andHoustonMerritt1902-1979refere.pdf |title={title} |access-date=2013-08-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407062219/http://www.ilae.org/visitors/Documents/PutnamTJ1894-1975andHoustonMerritt1902-1979refere.pdf |archive-date=2014-04-07 |url-status=dead }}
He treated Johnny Gunther for a brain tumor. Gunther’s eventual death from that tumor was written about by his father John Gunther in the 1949 book Death Be Not Proud.John Gunther, Death Be Not Proud (1949). Harper Perennial edition 1998: ISBN 0-06-092989-8
In 1937, Putnam and Alexandra Adler conducted a study about multiple sclerosis.{{Cite journal|last=Putnam|first=Tracy J.|date=July 1937|title=Vascular Architecture of the Lesions of Multiple Sclerosis|url=http://archneurpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/archneurpsyc.1937.02260190011001|journal=Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry|language=en|volume=38|issue=1|pages=1–15|doi=10.1001/archneurpsyc.1937.02260190011001|issn=0096-6754}}{{Cite web|title=Biography of Alexandra Adler|url=https://www.apadivisions.org/division-35/about/heritage/alexandra-adler-biography|access-date=2021-03-14|website=www.apadivisions.org|language=en}} The study was conducted on the brain of a multiple sclerosis victim, and resulted in new information on how the disease affected the human body. Illustrations from the study are frequently used in medical literature.{{cite journal| last = Vande Kemp| first = Hendrika| title = Alexandra Adler, 1901-2001| journal = The Feminist Psychologist| publisher = Society for the Psychology of Women| volume = 30| issue = 2 | date = Spring 2003| url = http://www.psych.yorku.ca/femhop/Adler.htm| format = reprint |access-date = 2012-10-08}}
Putnam was one of the first persons to propose, as early as the 1930s, a vascular cause for multiple sclerosis,{{Cite journal|last=Putnam|first=Tracy J.|date=June 1937|title=Evidences of Vascular Occlusion in Multiple Sclerosis and "Encephalomyelitis"|url=http://archneurpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/archneurpsyc.1937.02260180078006|journal=Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry|language=en|volume=37|issue=6|pages=1298–1321|doi=10.1001/archneurpsyc.1937.02260180078006|issn=0096-6754}} resurrecting the previous works of Eduard von Rindfleisch. The idea remained obscure until the syndrome of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) was associated with multiple sclerosis in 2008.
In 1963 Putnam had a small role in the science-fiction movie The Slime People. He played a scientist and was not listed in the credits.
References
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Category:Harvard Medical School alumni
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:Place of birth missing
Category:Place of death missing
Category:American neuroscientists