GEORGE WASHINGTON CRILE

1864-1943

George Washington Crile was born at Chili, a village in north-central Ohio, November 11, 1864, and died in Cleveland, January 7, 1943. He was graduated in arts in 1884 at what is now Ohio Northern University and in medicine at the Medical Department of TVooster ‘IJniversity in Cleveland in 1887.

Dr. Crile was widely known as a skillful surgeon. His teach- ing career and his interest and work in anatomy are less well known. He began his medical teaching in 1889 as lecturer and demonstrator of histology in the medical school from which he was graduated. A year later physiology was added and from 1893 to 1896 he was Professor of Physiology. After 1896 his teaching was entirely in surgery. He was Professor of Surgery in the same medical college from 1896 to 1900 and was a professor of surgery in the School of Medicine of Western Reserve University from 1900 to 1924, when he resigned to devote himself to other medical interests. He taught in medical schools in Cleveland continuously for 35 years.

He began animal experimentation in physiology in 1893. T.his led to publication of a book on shock in 1897. His experi- mental work in physiology brought interest in comparative organology, which he investigated in domestic and feral ani- mals of northern Ohio and in all the types of exotic animals he was able to secure from the local zoological garden. It was this interest that led to his becoming a member of the Amer- ican Association of Anatomists in 1910.

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His work in comparative organology was at first confined to the adrenals and thyroids and later extended to the heart, sympathetic nervous system, and central nervous system.

He, with three medical associates, established the Cleveland Clinic in 1921. I n this, at the outset, was a laboratory for animal experimentation and comparative organology, small at first, but later provided with an adequate building and a considerable full time staff of individuals well trained in science.

After his retirement from teaching Dr. Crile began explora- tions in 1927 to study the action of wild animals in their native habitat and to collect the organs in which he was in- terested. These expeditions, continued until 1941, extended in North America from the shores of Hudson Bay to Panama, to South America, Central Africa, and Pacific islands. He took with him a trained zoologist, a technician and equipment to set up a laboratory in the field. Animals that were killed were immediately dissected to expose the organs in which he was interested. These were photographed or sketched in situ, then extirpated and accurately weighed in fresh condition and the weights compared with the total body weight. The organs were preserved and sent to the laboratory in Cleveland for further gross and microscopical study. The greater part of the work was on mammals, ranging from small rodents to manatees, whales, and elephants. Some attention was given to reptiles and birds.

Accurate comparative weight determinations in the fresh condition of each of the organs mentioned have been made and compared with the other organs, and with total weight of the individual animals for nearly 4000 sets of specimens. Some of this work has been published. Endowment of the laboratory in Cleveland assures that the study of these ex- tensive collections will continue, with resulting publication.

Dr. Crile was engaged personally on experimental and comparative research for nearly 50 years, from 1893 until a few months before his death, and aided in later years by a staff of workers under his direction. He was the author of

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twenty-four published books and over 500 articles in peri- odical literature. His research in physiology and comparative organology much influenced his surgical work and led to notable contributions to surgical practice and technique.

Dr. Crile was a man of personal charm, with great energy and tireless industry. He was generous in financial contribu- tions to many cultural, medical, and scientific undertakings. He was a member of many medical and scientific societies of the United States and other countries, and received numerous testimonials of high regard of his scientific and surgical work. He was a surgeon in the Spanish American and first World War with foreign service in both, and was a brigadier general in the Reserve Corps from 1921.

FREDERICK C. WAITE

FRANKLIN PARADISE JOHNSON

1888-1943

Franklin P. Johnson was born in Hannibal, Missouri, Janu- ary 7, 1888, the parental Paradise and Johnson families being of, French and English ancestry. Of his Missouri boy- hood we have little information, but he sold stereoscopes and worked for a jeweler to support himself at the University of Missouri, where he received the A.B. degree in 1908. As undergraduate he took five medical school courses in anatomy under Prof. C. M. Jackson, with grade A in each of them. Then, when he saw on the bulletin board a notice sent by Prof. Charles S. Minot to his friend Dean Jackson, stating that a Teaching Fellowship in microscopic anatomy was available at the Harvard Medical School, “Johnny” applied and was accepted. He came like a breath of fresh air in a musty labora- tory, and the professor, captivated by his buoyant personality, cleared the way f o r rapid advance. Johnson was athletic-