Dr. Henry Jacob Bigelow

Dr. Henry Jacob Bigelow was an American surgeon and Professor of Surgery at Harvard University. A dominating figure in Boston medicine for many decades, he is remembered for the Bigelow maneuver for hip dislocation, a technique for treatment of kidney stones, and other innovations. He was instrumental in bringing the anesthetic possibilities of ether to the attention of medical men, and rescuing the case of Phineas Gage from relative obscurity.

He was a vocal opponent of vivisection, and played a minor role in the apprehension of the culprit in the Parkman–Webster murder case.

• Wikipedia: Henry Jacob Bigelow

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Henry Jacob Bigelow (1818-1890) was born in Boston, the son of Dr. Jacob Bigelow. He graduated from Harvard College in 1837. Dr. James Jackson said about Dr. Bigelow while he was still at school, “If he does not become a distinguished man it will because Boston is not a large enough field for his ability.” Prior to attending Harvard Medical School where he received his medical degree in 1841, Dr. Bigelow spent a period of time studying medicine abroad in Paris and London, under the direction of famed doctor Sir James Paget. After graduating, he opened a private practice devoted to surgery.

In 1846, Dr. Bigelow was appointed Surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846, a position he would fill for the next 40 years. That was the same year of the first public demonstration of ether anesthesia. Dr. Bigelow was the first person to announce this discovery to the world in a paper to be presented to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. For a year or two after the discovery, it was he who administered most of the ether used at the MGH. Said Dr. Edward H. Clarke about Dr. Bigelow’s influence upon the use of ether, “He did more than any other living person to bring it before the medical public of this country and of Europe, to assert its real value, and to point out the best methods of utilizing it.” Additionally, from 1849 to 1882, Dr. Bigelow was a Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, until receiving emeritus status at the time of his retirement.

Throughout his career, he wrote more than 35 medical papers, most of which concern surgical practice. Dr. Bigelow was also a very active trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts for many years. He was also one of the most noted American botanists of his time.

In 1887, a new MGH building was completed, which contained patient facilities, physician's offices, and an operating theater to replace the one in the Bulfinch Building. It was named for Henry J. Bigelow, whose brass sign still hangs outside an amphitheater named in his honor. Upon Dr. Bigelow's retirement in 1886, the trustees honored him with a bronze bust.

“But, in honoring the memory of so exceptional a man, the fact which compels our notice is, that, among his diverse qualities, the most conspicuous were his superior wisdom and his creative genius,- that, above all his other attributes, these have won him recognition throughout the civilized world, and have made the name of Henry Jacob Bigelow more familiar than that of any other surgeon in recent times”- Dr. Richard Manning Hodges at the memorial meeting of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement for Dr. Bigelow (1890)

“Remarkably gifted by nature, his talents were made unusually productive and useful by his intense devotion to the work of the moment, only ceasing with the successful accomplishment of the task. His lectures were models of condensed thought and applied knowledge, and were delivered with an aptness of diction and a richness of illustration which made them ever memorable. As a member of the faculty he was distinguished for the ripeness of his judgment, the wisdom of his conclusions, and the clearness and force of his arguments. Whether as advocate or opponent he was sure to add new light to the subjects under discussion, and was always to be recognized as a leader of men.”- Dr. C. P. Worcester

“His acute discernment and inventive genius made contributions to the surgical art which have put mankind deeply in his debt, and have won the undisguised admiration of his peers through all countries. We, his associates and scholars, know, too, his inspiration as a teacher, whose genius so illuminated his subject, that what might have been dry detail was endowed with interest and fixed indelibly in the memory. Conscious of the high gifts and genius of Dr. Bigelow, we wish to place upon our records a mark of our appreciation of what he was, and what we owe him.”- Dr. G. H. Monks