Who’s Who in Orthopedics
medical school, he served as a student intern at the House of the Good Samaritan. This institution was devoted to the care of patients with chronic diseases and, at that time, was, to a large extent, filled with tubercular patients; among these were many with tuberculous joint disease. Undoubt- edly, it was from assisting such orthopedic sur- geons as Edward Bradford, Elliott Brackett, and Joel E. Goldthwait in the care of these patients that he became interested in orthopedic surgery.
Following graduation, he served a surgical intern- ship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. This was considered a full qualification for the prac- tice of surgery.
At that time, the first machines for clinical roentgenographic study were introduced, follow- ing Roentgen’s great discovery of x-rays in 1895.
We can easily imagine how Robert Osgood, with the eagerness of youth and with the background of his orthopedic experience at the House of the Good Samaritan, where the diagnosis of bone and joint conditions was based only on clinical examinations and impressions, would become interested in this new tool, which offered the possibility of more exact diagnosis. He formed a friendship with Walter J. Dodd, the pharmacist at the Massachusetts General Hospital, who, for lack of a better qualified person, had undertaken to make the first experiments in the use of the x- ray machine. Together they explored its value as a diagnostic aid. After finishing his internship, his first hospital appointment was that of roentgenol- ogist at the Boston Children’s Hospital in 1902 and 1903. It was while working there that he made the observations on the growth and trau- matic disturbances of the tibial tubercle during adolescence, which were published in a paper on January 29, 1903. These lesions have since become known as Osgood–Schlatter disease, Schlatter having at a later date also described the condition. The early association with W.J.
Dodd also gave rise to a paper under their joint authorship in 1906 on the technique and inter- pretation of roentgenograms as applied to surgery.
Fortunately, Robert Osgood’s roentgenological work was of short duration because Dodd, who remained active in the field, and indeed was one of its great pioneers, incurred skin cancers of the hands, which ultimately proved fatal. Bob Osgood also had many skin cancers of the hands.
He underwent several operations and a cure resulted. He died of cerebral vascular disease.
In 1903, Robert Osgood went to study in Germany, France, and England; in England he
252Robert Bayley OSGOOD
1873–1956
Robert Osgood, or Bob, as he was always known to his friends, was of good New England stock.
He was born in Salem, Massachusetts, July 6, 1873, the son of John Christopher and Martha Ellen (Whipple) Osgood. His line could be traced back to John Osgood who emigrated from Hamp- shire, England, to Andover, Massachusetts, in 1638.
Following an education in the public schools of Salem, Robert Osgood was admitted to Amherst College, from which he was graduated in 1895 after the usual classical training in Greek, Latin, and English literature. While in college his chief outside interests were dramatics and singing with the glee club; these interests he retained through- out his life. He was listed in his senior year as an independent in politics, a Congregationalist, and a candidate for medical school. What inspired him to enter medicine is not known. The decision would appear to have been made late, for in those days it was rare for a man who was going to study medicine to obtain a classical education. This gave him the broad intellectual outlook he later had toward every aspect of life, professional or domestic, and made him a delightful companion.
He loved poetry and could quote from it for hours.
He also loved music and had good musical under- standing, although he played no instrument until in later years, when he learned to play the flute and fife for amusement.
He was granted his degree from Harvard
Medical School in 1899. During his last year in
made the acquaintance of Hugh Owen Thomas and his nephew Robert Jones, whose work made a deep impression on him. On his return he became associated with Dr. Joel E. Goldthwait and Dr. Charles F. Painter in the practice of ortho- pedic surgery. He was made assistant orthopedic surgeon at the Carney Hospital and, in 1906, assistant orthopedic surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He participated with Dr.
Goldthwait and Dr. Painter in the writing of one of the first American books on orthopedic surgery entitled Diseases of the Bones and Joints. He was deeply interested in research; his work at that time included studies of metabolism in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and, later, in association with Dr. William B. Lucas, studies of the transmission of the virus of poliomyelitis. They demonstrated that the virus of poliomyelitis might remain latent in the nasopharyngeal lymphoid tissue of monkeys for 6 months after the acute symptoms of the disease had disappeared and that it still could be transmitted to other monkeys. Later they were able to demonstrate for the first time a case of a human carrier of poliomyelitis by means of the recovery of virus from the nasal washing of a patient who had experienced an attack of poliomyelitis 4 months previously.
With the development of an orthopedic inpatient service at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1911, following the successful efforts of Dr. Goldthwait in raising funds to build ward I, Bob Osgood’s clinical work was centered in the Massachusetts General Hospital. At about this time he became instructor of surgery at the Harvard Medical School.
In 1910, in collaboration with Dr. Samuel J.
Mixter, he reported the first open reduction of dis- location of the atlas on the axis, the reduction being maintained by fixation with a strong silk suture. This operation forecast the pattern of the operation that has since been followed, only the silk suture has been replaced by stainless-steel wire and fusion has been combined with the fixation.
The First World War presented a great chal- lenge to medical science in meeting the emergen- cies and needs of caring for thousands of wounded. When the French and British armies were locked in trench warfare with the Germans along the Belgian and French frontiers in 1915, there was formed a Harvard surgical unit to work in rotation with other American university units at the American Ambulance in Neuilly. This unit, headed by Harvey Cushing, with Robert Osgood
as orthopedic surgeon, was soon at work. The experience, brief as it was, was enough to con- vince Bob Osgood of the frequency and impor- tance of wounds of the extremities involving skeletal structures caused by machine-gun fire and high-explosive shells and of the need for experienced orthopedic surgeons to provide the necessary expert care.
History moved forward rapidly; it was soon evident that American troops would be in action in the European theater of war. Bob Osgood was not alone in foreseeing the need for the immedi- ate training and preparation of American ortho- pedic surgeons to meet the responsibilities of providing care for American casualties. Thanks to the initiative and support of other American orthopedic surgeons and particularly to the coop- eration of Robert Jones, who at this time held the rank of Colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps and who had been made responsible for the care of all those with injuries of the musculoskeletal system in the British Army, arrangements were made so that it was possible, as soon as the United States entered the war, to enrol a group of ortho- pedic surgeons in the American Army and to send them to Great Britain to assist in the care of British wounded. There they learned the methods of treatment that had proved most successful. In due course, after the arrival of American troops in France and their introduction into combat, these American orthopedic surgeons were relieved of their duties in Britain and were transferred for active duty with the American Expeditionary Forces.
Bob Osgood obtained his commission in the army as soon as the United States entered the war;
and, after serving with the Army Medical Board appointed in 1917 to standardize splints, appli- ances, and surgical dressings for the American Expeditionary Forces, he was transferred to the British Medical War Office in London, where he served 6 months as deputy to Major General Sir Robert Jones, chief of the orthopedic section of that service. This assignment brought him into close personal relationship with Sir Robert Jones, whom he quickly learned to love. Indeed, it was because of the friendly relations he established with the British orthopedic surgeons that he was able, at the end of the war, to help in the found- ing of the British Orthopedic Association, which had seemed impossible previously, largely because of local rivalries and failure to attain unity of purpose and understanding. Full acknowledgment has been made by some of the
253Who’s Who in Orthopedics
founding members of this Association of the unique role played by Robert Osgood in its for- mation. He was made one of its first honorary members. In February 1918, Robert Osgood was attached to the office of the chief surgeon of the American Expeditionary Forces at Tours, where he served as a deputy to Colonel Goldthwait, who was then responsible for development of the army orthopedic service under the chief surgeon. Later Bob Osgood was recalled to the United States to serve as orthopedic consultant to the Surgeon General. In this position he did valuable work through periodic visits to the large base hospitals in the United States, where he was able not only to examine the quality of the work being done but also, because of his large experience, to help in the solving of individual problems. He was dis- charged in 1919 with the rank of Colonel in the Medical Reserve Corps.
Upon returning to Boston and upon the retire- ment of Dr. Elliott Brackett, Bob Osgood was promoted to head of the orthopedic service of the Massachusetts General Hospital. His weekly orthopedic rounds were stellar performances, not so much because of what he said, but because of the opportunity he offered to all staff members for full discussion. Ultimately he summarized the discussions, which clearly guided the final deci- sions as to treatment. He operated only often enough to maintain his technical skill, feeling always that the surgical opportunities should be given to the junior staff surgeons. He devoted himself to his residents, learning to know them and their families personally, so that he was famil- iar with all their problems. When a man did not come up to the standards required, he redoubled his efforts in the hope that he would find a way to stimulate him and set him on the right path.
He was able to arrange the incorporation of the orthopedic resident training programs of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston Children’s Hospital into a single program under the aegis of Harvard Medical School. This gave a 12-month residency at each of the two institutions and a 6-month training period in the basic sci- ences at Harvard Medical School. It was the most advanced and comprehensive program of ortho- pedic training in the United States and served as a model for many other medical schools.
One of his major achievements was the organ- ization of the first conference on the treatment of fractures, a 2-day meeting, which was held at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1921. This represented a triumph of diplomacy and leader-
ship because it brought together for the first time general surgeons who were interested in fractures and orthopedic surgeons. The conference was attended by 50 or more general and orthopedic surgeons of great individuality and reputation. It seemed impossible that such men as Ashley Ashurst of Philadelphia, William Sherman of Pittsburgh, Charles Scudder of Boston, Kellogg Speed of Chicago, to name only a few, could get together with a group of orthopedic surgeons and achieve a meeting of the minds on the treatment of fractures; yet, this was accomplished and the results were published in a bulletin of the American College of Surgeons entitled A Primer of Fracture Treatment. This was reprinted many times and was later translated into many foreign languages. From this first meeting emerged the Fracture Committee of the American College of Surgeons, an organization on a national scale, which was established to improve both the emergency care and the final treatment of frac- tures. This Fracture Committee has since been expanded to become the Committee on Trauma of the American College of Surgeons.
In 1922, Bob Osgood left the Massachusetts General Hospital and became Chief of the Ortho- pedic Service at the Boston Children’s Hospital;
this carried with it the title of Professor of Ortho- pedic Surgery at the Harvard Medical School. In 1924, he was made John B. and Buckminster Brown Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, a permanently endowed chair. In accepting this appointment, Bob Osgood insisted upon and obtained a concession from the Dean and Faculty of Medicine of the Harvard Medical School that henceforth eligibility for the title of Professor of Orthopedic Surgery should not be limited exclu- sively to the Chief of the Orthopedic Service at the Boston Children’s Hospital, but that it should also be extended to the Chief of the Orthopedic Service at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
He held this post until 1930, when he retired vol- untarily, earlier than necessary, in order to make room for a younger man.
Dr. Osgood was a member of the Massachu- setts Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the New England Surgical Society (past president, 1928–1929), the American Ortho- pedic Association (president, 1920–1921), the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, and the American College of Surgeons. In 1925, he served as Hugh Owen Thomas Lecturer at the Medical Institute of Liverpool. He was a member of the International Society of Orthopedic
254Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Who’s Who in Orthopedics Surgery and Traumatology, Honorary Member
of the Royal Society of Medicine in England, Honorary Member of the British Orthopedic Association, and Honorary Member of the Aus- tralian Orthopedic Association. As a member of the American Committee on Rheumatism, he helped to organize the American Rheumatism Association (president, 1944). He was the first Chairman of the Advisory Board of Orthopedic Surgeons to the Trustees of the Shriners’ Hospi- tal for Crippled Children. He was a member and later Chairman of the Advisory Committee for Services for Crippled Children of the Children’s Bureau. He was a member of the Advisory Board of the Alfred I. duPont Institute and helped in planning its hospital. In 1943, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Sur- geons, the Fellowship being conferred on him by Major General Sir William Heneage Ogilvie at the British Embassy in Washington. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, by Amherst College in 1935.
His former pupils and associates combined on the occasion of his 70th birthday to publish in the Archives of Surgery a special number dedicated to him; in the following year another group of pupils and associates united to arrange for the painting of his portrait by Mr. Samuel Hopkinson. This excellent work now hangs in the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Robert Bayley Osgood died on October 2, 1956, in Boston, at the age of 83. Dr. Osgood was married on April 29, 1902, to Margaret Louisa, daughter of Nathaniel Gates Chapin of Brookline, Massachusetts, who survived him. They had a daughter by adoption, Ellen. Bob and Margaret Osgood were exponents of the art of gracious living, of cordial hospitality, and of warm friendship.
Adolph Wilhelm OTTO
1786–1845
Adolph Wilhelm Otto was born in Greifswald, Germany, where his father, a physician, was a professor of natural history and a well-known ornithologist. He was educated in Frankfurt am Oder and Greifswald, where he graduated in 1808. Five years of postgraduate study were con- cluded with an extensive trip through medical
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