Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1002

RICKETTS 980 RICORD Pendleton, Indiana, with a view to recover his health. One year later he removed to Indianapolis, where he practised medicine and preached the gospel. In 1842 he suffered an attack of apoplexy, from which he lost the use of his left leg. Thus disabled, he made his home with some of his children in Covington, Fountain County, Indiana, giving up practice and the ministry, but never losing interest in either of -them. Dr. Richmond's wife died in 1854, and he died in October, ISSS. A monu- ment to his memory was dedicated at New- town, Ohio, with appropriate ceremonies, April 22, 1912. A. G. Drury. From John L. Richmond. Western Pioneer. Surg. Address before the McDowell Med. Soc, Cin- cinnati, January 11, 1912. By Otto Jucttner, M. D. Also The Celebrated Richmond Caesarean Case. G. W. H. Kemper. M. D. Indianapolis Med. Jour., September, 1909. RJcketts, Howard Taylor (1871-1910). Howard Taylor Rickctts was born at Find- lay, Ohio, on February 9, 1871. He attended the University of Nebraska, where he gradu- ated in Arts, in 1894, and then took his medical course at the Northwestern University Medical School, graduating in 1897. He spent two years as an interne in the Cook County Hos- pital, Chicago, and after this was, in turn, fel- low and instructor in pathology in Rush Medi- cal College. In 1901 he went abroad for study and laboratory work, and on his return in 1902 he was appointed associate professor of path- ology in the University of Chicago. Shortly before his death he was called to the chair of pathology in the University of Pennsylvania. He was the ideal investigator, with an imag- ination which suggested possibilities and with the ability to work them out by the facts. In three separate lines of investigation he did original work of great value, doing much to advance our knowledge. The first was in the study of Blastomycosis or Oidiomycosis. He made a comprehensive survey of the subject, added new facts, and brought its many aspects into one whole. The second subject was taken up, when in 1906, while on an enforced holiday, from overwork, he became interested in Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. About this disease there was much mystery ; it occurred in certain districts in the spring of the year. Ricketts proved the incorrectness of certain views held as to the etiology, and showed that the disease was conveyed to man by the accidental bite of an infected adult tick. As only adult ticks gain access to man, and they occur only in the spring, the curious seasonal prevalence was explained. He also showed the part played by the gopher in keeping up the infection. His third particular contribution concerned typhus fever, which he studied in Mexico. He proved that the disease known as tabardillo in Mexico, is typhus fever, that it is transmitted by the body louse, and that it could be con- veyed to monkeys, in which animals he also produced an immunity. The importance of these researches, particularly the discovery of the conveyance of the disease by the louse, needs no emphasis. He did valuable work in the investigation of problems relating to infection and immunity and wrote extensively on them. His work "Infection, Immunity and Serum Therapy" was published in 1906, by the American Medi- cal Association Press. His death resulted from an attack of typhus fever, the disease which he was studying, in Mexico City, May 3, 1910. This disease has taken a heavy toll from the profession, and among them no man of more promise than Ricketts. His name is another well worthy to be added to the role of honor in the annals of Medicine. His medical contributions were published by the Chicago Pathological Society, under the title "Contributions to Medical Science by Howard Taylor Ricketts" (1911, University of Chicago Press). In this a short sketch of his life is given by Dr. Hektoen. Other no- tices are: Journal American Medical Associa- tion, 1910, volume liv, page 1640, and Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1910, volume clxii, page 657. „ ,, „ Thomas McCrae. Ricord Family. The Ricord brothers, Jean Baptiste, Alex- ander and Philippe, were grandsons of a dis- tinguished physician of Marseilles, France, and sons of a once wealthy ship-owner, a member of the Compagnie des Indes, who fled to Italy during the French revolution, and from there to Guadeloupe, West Indies, finally settling in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1790. Jean Baptiste Ricord was born in Paris in 1777, and died in the island of Guadeloupe in 1837. He was educated in Italy, and settled in Baltimore with his father, having his medi- cal education at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, where he was in the same class with Theodoric Romeyn Beck. As his name is not to be found in the general cata- logue of that institution, the inference is that he did not receive a degree. When his medical studies were finished in 1810, at the age of thirty-three. Dr. Ricord went to the West Indies for the purpose of making researches in botany and natural history. There he trav-