Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/779

NAME MALL 757 MALLETT "organogenesis." Through the complete de- velopment of organogenesis the study of anatomy may be rationalized, for thereby nor- mal structure and the limits of variation may be understood. The later years of Dr. Mall's life were devoted to the organization of a research institute of embryology under the Carnegie Institution of Washington. One of the most striking points in his career is that in these years, devoted to the organization of a new institute, he accomplished some of his best scientific work. He made an exhaustive study of the causes of monsters. To this study he brought a mastery of all the older litera- ture on the subject, a critical judgment in analyzing the results of recent experimental embryology combined with an extensive first- hand knowledge of abnormal human embryos, he arriving at the conclusion that "monsters are not due to germinal and hereditary causes, but are produced from normal embryos by influences which are to be sought in their environment." They are due to causes bound up with what may be termed faulty implan- tation whereby alterations in the nutrition of the embryo at an early critical stage produce changes which range all the way from com- plete degeneration of the embryo up to a monster which survives to term. In the new institute of embryology Dr. Mall proposed to complete the study of organogenesis and to analyze problems associated with growth, which need for their solution large amounts of material and expert technical assistance. In addition to his contribution to the devel- opment of his science, Dr. Mall was a great teacher. He will be remembered as having trained a large group of the men who are now prominent in scientific medicine. He was one of the foremost men in the reorganiza- tion of the American Association of .Anato- mists, making it one of the distinguished scien- tific bodies in the country. He played a prominent part in the development of scien- tific publications in this country, being largely responsible for the establishment of the American Journal of Anatomy, the Anatomical Record, and, finally, the Contributions to Embryology, published by the Carnegie Insti- tution of Washington. He was a man of rare personality; modest, generous, unswerv- ingly devoted to ideals and possessed of a genius for stimulating thought. He held the degrees of Honorary A. M., University of Michigan, 1900; University of Wisconson, 1904; Sc. D. University of Mich- igan, 1908; LL. D. Washington University, St. Louis, 1915, and he was a member of the National Academy of Sciences; associate fel- low, American Academy of Arts and Sciences ; College of Physicians, Philadelphia; Ameri- can Philosophical Society, and Society of American Naturalists. Florence R. Sabin. Mallett, William Peter (1816-1889) William Peter Mallett was born at Fayette- ville. North Carolina, January 16, 1819. He received his general education at Trinity Col- lege, Hartford, in Connecticut, and in 1841 graduated M. D. at the Medical College of Charleston, South Carolina. He settled at Fayetteville where he had an extensive prac- tice and was noted for his cleanliness and dex- terity in surgery. In 1857 he moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, that his children might be educated at the State University. Here his activities were those of a general practitioner, surgeon and consultant, and he served largely as the University physician. When the Civil War broke out he entered the Confederate Army as a surgeon and remained until dis- charged on account of illness. Dr. Mallett's fame is enhanced by a skilful and successful cesarean section in 1852, done near Fayetteville, the famous old "Cape Fear section." The patient, undersized and seven- teen years old, was in labor with her first child when Mallett visited her March 26, 1852. On rupturing the tough membranes the cord pro- lapsed and a fully developed dead child's head was found locked above the pubes in trans- verse presentation; after due patience and con- sultation with Dr. H. A. McSwain, Mallett presented the alternative of inactivity and cer- tain death or cesarean section with one chance in twenty ; he operated without an anesthetic, although chloroform was used in the prelimi- nary examination. The excision extended four inches above the umbilicus to within three of the pubes; the hemorrhage and shock were slight. The wound was dressed with four or five needles, transfi.xing and uniting the sides by twisted suture; adhesive straps and a roller compress gave good lateral support, and a cold water dressing was used for four days, while abstinence from food, perfect quiet of mind and body and occasional saline purges com- pleted the treatment. The upper two-thirds of the wound healed by first intention, and in nine days the patient was out of bed. Whitehead says she gave birth to several children later. Dr. Mallett died at Chapel Hill. October 16, 1889. A grandson is Dr. William deB.