Tracy Putnam

Tracy Jackson Putnam (April 14, 1894 – March 29, 1975) was the co-discoverer, together with H. Houston Merritt, of Dilantin for controlling epilepsy.[1]

Education

Putnam graduated from Harvard College in 1915, and then from Harvard Medical School in 1920.[2]

Career

Putnam worked for the Boston City Hospital and in the New York Neurological Institute at Columbia University. He was promoted to director after his work with phenytoin.[3]

At his time there were quotas for Jewish physicians. He opposed the existence of the quotas. He was forced to resign from Columbia in 1947, maybe because of this.[4] However, other sources mention a "personal tragedy" Putnam went through at that time (presumably the death of his daughter, Lucy Washburn Putnam, on September 24, 1947),[5] after which he resigned from Columbia and abandoned all scientific activities.[6]

He studied multiple sclerosis together with Alexandra Adler.[7] He was one of the first persons to propose, as early as the 1930s, a vascular cause for multiple sclerosis,[8] resurrecting the previous works of Eduard von Rindfleisch. The idea remained obscure until the syndrome of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) was associated with multiple sclerosis in 2008.

In 1963 Putnam had a small role in the science-fiction movie ’The Slime People’. He played a scientist and was not listed in the credits..

References
  1. Lewis P. Rowland, The Legacy of Tracy J. Putnam and H. Houston Merritt: Modern Neurology in the United States, Arch Neurol. 2009; 66(3):415.
  2. "The Society of Neurological Surgeons". Societyns.org. Archived from the original on 2018-08-29. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  3. Lewis P. Rowland, The Legacy of Tracy J. Putnam and H. Houston Merritt: Modern Neurology in the United States, N Engl J Med 2009; 360:941–942, February 26, 2009
  4. Lerner, Barron H. (2009-05-25). "When Jewish Doctors Faced Quotas, a Pose in Defiance". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-06-22.
  5. "1948/49 - Office of Alumnae/i Affairs & Development (OAAD) - Vassar College". Alums.vassar.edu. Archived from the original on 2015-08-17. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  6. "{title}" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2013-08-20.
  7. Putnam, Tracy J. (July 1937). "Vascular Architecture of the Lesions of Multiple Sclerosis". Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry. 38 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1001/archneurpsyc.1937.02260190011001. ISSN 0096-6754.
  8. Putnam, Tracy J. (June 1937). "Evidences of Vascular Occlusion in Multiple Sclerosis and "Encephalomyelitis"". Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry. 37 (6): 1298–1321. doi:10.1001/archneurpsyc.1937.02260180078006. ISSN 0096-6754.
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