| Henry Pickering Bowditch | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 April 1840 |
| Died | 13 March 1911 |
| Occupation | Dean, Harvard Medical School |
Henry Pickering Bowditch (4 April 1840 – 13 March 1911) was the dean of the Harvard Medical School from 1883 to 1893. Following his teacher Carl Ludwig, he promoted the training of medical practitioners in a context of physiological research. His teaching career at Harvard spanned 35 years.
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Henry P. Bowditch was born to Jonathan Ingersoll Bowditch and Lucy Orne Nichols Bowditch. He was the grandson of Nathaniel Bowditch. He graduated from Harvard College in 1861, and then entered Harvard’s Lawrence Scientific School. His studies there were interrupted by his service for the Union army in the United States Civil War. After graduation from Harvard Medical School in 1868, he went to Paris to study with Claude Bernard. In Bernard’s lab he worked alongside Louis-Antoine Ranvier, later known for neuroanatomy, and Etienne Jules Marey who promoted the use of photography to capture physiological dynamics. According to Walter Bradford Cannon, when in Paris, Bowditch joined with fellow Bostonians John Collins Warren, Jr., William James, and Charles Emerson for frog-hunting parties.
Bowditch continued his European studies in Bonn with Wilhelm Kuhne and Max Schultze. Ultimately he proceeded to Leipzig where Carl Ludwig was conducting the program that he would emulate at Harvard. Bowditch impressed Ludwig by constructing an improvement on the kymograph in use. His studies in Leipzig brought him into contact with, among others, Ray Lankester, Angelo Mosso, Hugo Kronecker and Carl von Voit.
Bowditch purchased European materials to support the investigative training program he planned. And dramatically, on 9 September 1871, just days before sailing for Boston, he married Selma Knuth of Leipzig. The Bowditch laboratory at Harvard began modestly in attic rooms allotted to him. Bowditch's career at Harvard was parallel to that of William James who instituted his program of experimental psychology in 1875. Bowditch and James represented the New Education esposed by Charles William Eliot, Harvard President. By 1876 Bowditch was promoted to full professor. In 1887 he co-founded the American Physiological Society. At Harvard he rose to the position of dean of the medical school, serving 1883 – 1893. In 1903 he was honoured with the George Higginson chair. After 35 years teaching for Harvard, he retired in 1906. His students included Walter Bradford Cannon, Charles Sedgwick Minot and G. Stanley Hall.
Manfred Bowditch, Henry's son, gave a personal description of the man he knew as father. A certain Adirondack camp at the head of the Keene Valley provides much of his context. There, with a well-equipped workshop the son witnessed considerable "inventiveness and manual skill" that Henry also applied in the physiology lab.(see external link)
Bowditch was granted honorary degrees from these universities: Cambridge, Edinburgh, Toronto, Pennsylvania, and Harvard.
Henry Pickering Bowditch was known for his physiological work on cardiac contraction and knee jerk.[1][2][3] He also developed an interest in anthropometry, and showed that nutrition and environmental factors contribute to physiological development. Bowditch can be seen as a link between the milieu interieur of Claude Bernard, his teacher, and homeostasis as developed by his student Walter Cannon.