Howard Taylor Ricketts ji'' LAWRENCE J. GUTTER Collecn'on of Chicogoono THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO The University Library (Su G.5 ■■^"■^— ^p^g Howard Taylor Ricketts 1871 — 1910 Introduction Among the many illustrious sons of Northwestern, no name looms larger than that of Howard Taylor Ricketts. The least his Medical Alma Mater can do is to perpetuate his memory in the belief that his example will kindle the hearts and the minds of youth. Society needs to pre- serve and uphold highmindedness, idealism, and the search for truth, all of which Howard Ricketts, personified. Northwestern University has a duty to perform in the creation of a substantially endowed foundation that shall bear his name. In furtherance of the pro- ject a committee has been formed to re- ceive contributions. It is anticipated that the goal, namely $100,000 will be achieved within a reasonable time. All funds re- ceived will be deposited with the Trustees of Northwestern University for conserva- tion and administration. The fund will be permanent and only the income thereof will be utilized. As one who knew Howard Ricketts rather intimately at the University of Nebraska — it is not too much to say that no member of that student body was more beloved or represented a higher type of character than the youth who was to become a martyr to science. Irving S. Cutter HOWARD TAYLOR RICKETTS by Charles A. Elliott HE name of Howard Taylor Ricketts, Northwestern Uni- versity Medical School, Glass of 1897, is inscribed for all time on the honor roll of medical achievement, among the heroes of medical science. Doctor Ricketts was born on a farm in Hancock County, Ohio, on February 9, 1871. When he was two years of age, his father, then a farmer, moved his family to Illinois, and later, when Ricketts was seven, settled in the small village of Fisher in Champaign County, and engaged in the grain business. They were religious peo- ple, members of the Methodist Church, determined to give their children a college education, and Northwestern University was the college of their choice. Howard Ricketts attended Northwest- ern Academy, Evanston, Illinois in prep- aration for college, and while there first met Myra E. Tubbs of Kirkwood, Illinois — an acquaintance and friendship which finally culminated in their marriage twelve years later. He entered Northwestern Uni- versity in 1890. He was a superior student ; was admitted to the Delta Upsilon Frater- nity; played base-ball on the University team ; was a member of the Glee Club ; and was elected manager of the Syllabus, an annual University publication. The family fortunes, shaken by the economic depres- sion of the early nineties, made it necessary for him to interrupt his college career at Northwestern at the end of his sophomore year, and with his family he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he entered the University of Nebraska as a Junior in the fall of 1892. His unusual earnestness and ability as a student received early recogni- tion by his instructors and classmates both at Northwestern and Nebraska. At Lincoln his intimate friends and associates included among many others, John J. Pershing, Ros- coe Pound, Dorothy Ganfield, Willa Gather, and Edward P. Elliott — all sons and daugh- ters of pioneers — forming a remarkable group of rather serious minded young peo- ple, as such things are judged in retrospect. About this time reversals in the family fortunes of the Ricketts family were ex- treme, and henceforth he was obliged to support himself while pursuing his studies. This he did by arduous labor, often drudg- ery. During the next few years he was com- pelled to resort to many expedients to earn the funds needed to carry on ; he delivered newspapers, sold tickets at an amusement park, sang in the church choir, taught zoology, tutored, and slept in a doctor's office, answering night calls. Under Gus- tave Ghanute, pioneer student of aviation, he served as cook and general handy-man on an expedition to the Indiana Dunes during the summer of 1895. The expedition was organized for the purpose of studying the principles of flight by heavier- than-air craft, and brought about the fortuitous as- sociation of these two pioneers in divergent fields of scientific endeavor. He entered Northwestern University Medical School in the fall of 1894, graduat- ing in 1897. The senior year was difiicult. The strain of preparing himself for the Cook County Hospital examinations un- dermined his health. He was frail, over- worked, worn, and finally was compelled to leave school, returning at the end of the academic year, just as the hospital ex- aminations were starting. He had regained his health but had lost much time from his studies and against his better judgment, was induced to take the examinations with- out further preparation. He succeeded in securing one of the coveted appointments, thus fulfilling his ambition. Thereafter his progress in medicine was uninterrupted. On completing his intemeship at Cook County Hospital he accepted an appoint- ment as Fellow in Dermatology at Rush Medical College. In 1902 he received an ap- pointment as Instructor, and later as Asso- ciate Professor in Pathology and Bacteri- ology at the University of Chicago. In 1910, the year of his death, he accepted an ap- pointment as Professor of Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania, which post he was destined never to fill. Throughout his career Ricketts exhib- ited unusual traits of character. He had courage and an unsw^erving devotion to an ideal. He was industrious, able to work under adverse conditions, and never shirked a task, no matter how menial. His natural ability for scientific investigation was early apparent to all who knew him; he was a clear thinker and became an investigator of the first rank. Within a life span of but thirty-nine years, Ricketts, supported by the McCormick Institute of Infectious Diseases and the University of Chicago, and encouraged by his friend, Dr. Ludvig Hektoen, added much to our knowledge of infectious dis- eases. Among other investigations he con- tributed an exhaustive study of blastomy- cosis, then a little known disease. During the course of this investigation he inocu- lated himself with the virus of this disease. At that time blastomycosis was assumed to be a readily controlled infection of the skin only. He developed however, a gen- eralized infection, a serious form of the disease, now, but not then, recognized. For- tunately he recovered, but not without grave concern to his colleagues. Ricketts demonstrated the cause and in- dicated the method of prevention of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, a virulent disease then prevalent in certain mountainous dis- tricts of our western states. He proved the transmission of the virus of Spotted Fever through ticks, commonly found in great numbers in the infested valleys of Mon- tana, and demonstrated that the bite of the infected adult tick conveyed the disease to man. The tick reaches its adult stage only during the spring of the year. The hereto- fore unexplained seasonal prevalence of the disease in man was thus clearly elucidated. The genetic name, "Rickettsia" is now ap- plied to this and similar organisms causing a number of infections to which man is susceptible. Because of certain peculiari- ties, which Ricketts believed Rocky Moun- tain Spotted Fever had in common with Typhus Fever, his interest in the latter was stimulated. Typhus fever is a devastating world scourge of poverty, filth, and war, which within historic times has claimed its mil- lions. He determined to investigate typhus, then endemic in Mexico, and in December 1909, journeyed to Mexico City, prepared to study its cause and mode of transmission. He was accompanied by Dr. Russell M. Wilder, now of the Mayo Clinic, as a volun- tary assistant. As a result of his labors the mode of spread of typhus fever from man to man by way of the body louse (pedicu- losis vestimentorum) was demonstrated in- controvertably. In addition he found an organism of the Rickettsia group in the blood of typhus fever patients and in the fluids of infected body lice. His work concluded and his reports written — another milestone was erected in the progress of medical science. Ricketts unfortunately contracted typhus fever, and died of its ravages on May 3, 1910, a sacri- fice to human welfare. On May sixth, three days following his death, an unsigned edi- torial appeared in the Chicago Tribune^ in part, as follows: "The death of Dr. Howard T, Ricketts adds another name to the long honor roll of science. The endless warfare that mankind has fought against ignorance and its childy disease, has claimed another victim, but the fight goes on. Doctor Ricketts left his un- finished investigations to his fellow work- ers in the field of medical research. But he left something much more precious to his fellow men — the example of a high courage and devotion in the cause of humanity. Doctor Ricketts died on the firing line of human progress, and it is inspiring to be- lieve, as we may, that he did not die in vain. Mankind is richer for his living and nobler for his dying." The results of Doctor Ricketts' investi- gations pointed the way to the control of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever of our Western states, and were instrumental in stimulating the delousing activities of the armies during the World War, preventing the spread of typhus fever which had al- ready made its appearance and which otherwise would have proved disastrous. Northwestern is proud of this illustrious son whose achievements, although pre- maturely interrupted, have meant so much to humanity. RICKETTS FOUNDATION COMMITTEE Charles A. Elliott 8 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, 111. John A. Wolfer Arthur A. Anderson 8 S. Michigan Ave. 135 S. La Salle St. Chicago, 111. Chicago, 111. Irving S. Cutter 303 E. Chicago Ave. Chicago, 111. Charles H. Mayo Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minn. S. Marx White 1009 Nicollet Ave. Minneapolis, Minn. Allen B. Kanavel 1015 S. 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