William C. MacCarty

{{Infobox person

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1880|06|10}}

| birth_place = Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1964|05|17|1880|06|10}}

| death_place = Rochester, Minnesota, U.S.

| alma_mater = University of Kentucky
Johns Hopkins University

| children = 2

}}

William Carpenter MacCarty (June 10, 1880 – May 17, 1964) was an American surgeon and pathologist active in the early 20th century.

Early life and education

MacCarty was born in Louisville, Kentucky on June 10, 1880, to Rhoda Ann Carpenter MacCarty and William Orlando MacCarty.{{Cite web |title=William Carpenter MacCarty |url=https://www.ukalumni.net/s/article/William-Carpenter-MacCarty |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=University of Kentucky Alumni Association |language=en-US}}

He attended the University of Kentucky for his B.S. in 1900 and M.S. in 1909. He earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1904. Following his graduation from Johns Hopkins, he studied at the Koenigin Hospital in Berlin until 1906, focusing on surgical pathology.

Career

He became head of the Surgical Pathology Section of the Mayo Clinic in 1909,{{Cite news |date=1964-05-19 |title=DR. WILLIAM M'CARTY |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/05/19/archives/dr-william-mcarty.html |access-date=2025-03-05 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} continuing in the role until 1946, and serving a senior consultant until 1948.{{Cite journal |last=Baggenstoss |first=A. H. |date=April 1965|title=WILLIAM CARPENTER MACCARTY--1880-1964 |url=https://www.gastrojournal.org/action/showPdf?pii=S0016-5085%2865%2980015-4 |journal=Gastroenterology |volume=48|issue=4 |pages=534|doi=10.1016/S0016-5085(65)80015-4 |issn=0016-5085 |pmid=14271880}}

He introduced the term strawberry gallbladder in 1910.{{Cite journal |last=ELMAN |first=ROBERT |last2=GRAHAM |first2=EVARTS A. |date=1932-01-01 |title=THE PATHOGENESIS OF THE "STRAWBERRY" GALLBLADDER: (CHOLESTEROSIS OF THE GALLBLADDER) |url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/article-abstract/540690 |journal=Archives of Surgery |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=14–22 |doi=10.1001/archsurg.1932.01160130017002 |issn=0272-5533|url-access=subscription }} His article contains one of the earliest color photographs of pathology specimens. Known for his claim that "a well trained pathologist can make the diagnosis of cancer from a single cell" in the frozen section practice, he earned the nickname "One Cell MacCarty".{{Cite book |last=Wold |first=Lester |title=Mayo Clinic Pathology: The First 100 years |publisher=Mayo Clinic |year=2005}} He was a founding member of the American Society for Clinical Pathology in 1922.

He taught pathology as a professor in the University of Minnesota's Mayo Graduate School of Medicine.

He retired on October 1, 1948.

Personal life and death

MacCarty married Helen Maud Collin, and the couple had two sons, both of whom entered the medical field. William C. MacCarty Jr. (1911–1988) worked as a radiologist,{{Cite journal |last=Jeffery |first=Robert F. |date=February 1989 |title=William C. MacCarty, Jr, MD |url=https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/abs/10.1148/radiology.170.2.580-a?journalCode=radiology |journal=Radiology |volume=170 |issue=2 |pages=580 |doi=10.1148/radiology.170.2.580-a |issn=0033-8419|url-access=subscription }} while Collin S. MacCarty led the Neurologic Surgery section of the Mayo Clinic.

MacCarty died in Rochester, Minnesota on May 17, 1964, following a brief illness.

Selected publications

MacCarty wrote over 100 papers during his career, and also wrote "for a number of medical books and encyclopedias".

= Articles =

{{Cite journal |last1=MacCarty |first1=William Carpenter |last2=Blackford |first2=John Minor |date=June 1912 |title=Involement of Regional Lymphatic Glands in Carcinoma of the Stomach |journal=Annals of Surgery |language=en |volume=55 |issue=6 |pages=811–843 |doi=10.1097/00000658-191206000-00004 |issn=0003-4932 |pmc=1407284 |pmid=17862847}}
{{Cite journal |last=MacCARTY |first=William Carpenter |date=1922-12-02 |title=DOES CANCER ARISE IN CHRONIC GASTRIC ULCER? |url=http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.1922.02640230038011 |journal=JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association |language=en |volume=79 |issue=23 |pages=1928 |doi=10.1001/jama.1922.02640230038011 |issn=0098-7484}}
{{Cite journal |last=MacCarty |first=William Carpenter |date=1931-01-01 |title=The Present Status of Knowledge of Cancer* |url=https://academic.oup.com/ajcp/article-abstract/1/1/85/1754702?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=American Journal of Clinical Pathology |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=85–92 |doi=10.1093/ajcp/1.1.85 |issn=0002-9173|url-access=subscription }}
{{Cite journal |last=MacCarty |first=William Carpenter |date=1938-09-01 |title=Early cancer of the stomach and its clinical significance |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02996472 |journal=The American Journal of Digestive Diseases |language=en |volume=5 |issue=9 |pages=549–554 |doi=10.1007/BF02996472 |issn=1573-2568|url-access=subscription }}

Honors and awards

Honorary Doctorate of Science (1937), University of Kentucky