Edgar M. BICK1902–1978

Edgar M. BICK

1902–1978

Edgar M. Bick spent his entire life in New York City. He was educated in the public schools and attended Columbia University, from which he received an AB, a master of arts, and a doctor in medicine, the latter in 1927. After an internship and a year of study in various clinics in Europe, he became an orthopedic resident at the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled, now the Hospital for Special Surgery. At the completion of his residency, he entered practice in New York City, where he worked primarily at the Mount Sinai Hospital. When the Mount Sinai School of Medicine was established in 1968, Bick was made an emeritus clinical professor of orthopedic surgery. His practice was interrupted by service in World War II. He was the orthopedic surgeon for the 3rd General Hospital as it moved through North Africa, through Italy, and into southern France. He became a regional orthope- dic consultant in the European Theater of Operations.

Bick was a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, serving as chairman of its orthope- dic section and as a member of its library com- mittee. It was this association with the library that sparked his interest in the history of orthopedic surgery and led to the publication of the Source Book of Orthopedic Surgery, which became a standard reference on the subject.

Bick had a busy orthopedic practice. He had a great interest in the field of geriatrics and pub-

lished several articles on the subject of diseases and injuries of the aged.

28

Who’s Who in Orthopedics

Henry Jacob BIGELOW

1818–1890

Henry Jacob Bigelow was born in Boston, where his father, a physician, was the Professor of Materia Medica at the Harvard Medical School.

He was educated in private schools before enter- ing Harvard University at the age of 15. As an undergraduate interested in chemistry, he took the lead in planning the laughing parties during which nitrous oxide or laughing gas was the main feature. After graduating in 1837, he began the study of medicine with his father as his precep- tor. He also attended lectures at the Harvard Medical School and lectures by his friend Oliver Wendell Holmes at Dartmouth. A year later he was appointed to the position of house surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Two years later he was forced to break off his education because of symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis.

He travelled in Cuba for a time and then went directly to Europe to resume his medical studies.

After a short stay in Europe, he returned to Boston and received his medical degree from Harvard in 1841. He returned to Europe for additional study and to set up his surgical practice.

In 1844 he received the Boyleston Prize for

a small book entitled Manual of Orthopedic

Surgery. This was the first book on the subject to

be published in the United States. The following