Howard Atwood Kelly

For the British Admiral, see Howard Kelly (Royal Navy officer).

Dr. Howard Kelly
Born	(1858-02-20)February 20, 1858 Camden, New Jersey
Died	Baltimore, Maryland
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania
Occupation	Obstetrician/Gynecologist, Professor, Writer

Howard Atwood Kelly (February 20, 1858 – January 12, 1943) was an American male gynecologist, one of the "Big Four" founding professors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He is credited with establishing gynecology as a true specialty, by developing new surgical approaches to women only diseases and through pathological research.

Career

He was born at Camden, New Jersey and educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated B.A. in 1877 and M.D. in 1882. He was for some years a member of the faculty of medicine at McGill University. After completing his medical education, he went to Kensington where he choose to practice gynecology. Dr. Kelly visited the best surgeons of abdominal and pelvic operations in Europe before returning to the University of Pennsylvania. In 1888–89, he returned to the University of Pennsylvania, to become associate professor of obstetrics. While in Philadelphia he founded Kensington Hospital for Women.

In 1889 at the age of 31 he was hired to be the first professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Johns Hopkins University and gynecological surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The other "Big Four" founders were William Osler, Professor of Medicine, hired from Pennsylvania in 1889 as well; William Stewart Halsted, Professor of Surgery; and William H. Welch, Professor of Pathology. During his 30-year career at Hopkins he created new surgical approaches to women's diseases and invented numerous medical devices, including the cystoscope. He was one of the first to use radium to treat cancer, founding the Kelly Clinic in Baltimore, one of the country's leading centers for radiation therapy at that time. At Johns Hopkins, Kelly was responsible for organizing the courses, lectures, and clinical work for the medical students. In 1888–89, he returned to the University of Pennsylvania, to become associate professor of obstetrics. Some of Dr. Kelly’s notable contributions were using a wax-tipped catheter to detect ureteral calculi and altering the operation for an umbilical hernia.

Recognition

His attainments in his special field brought him many honors. He received the honorary degree of (LL.D.) from Aberdeen and Washington and Lee universities and from the University of Pennsylvania; he served as president of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Society in 1907 and of the American Gynecological Society in 1912. He was a fellow or honorary member of obstetrical and gynecological societies in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Austria, and Italy.

The Johns Hopkins Kelly Gynecologic Oncology Service is named for him.

In 1943 a U.S. Liberty ship was christened the Howard A. Kelly.

Personal life

He married Laetitia Bredow, daughter of professor Justus Bredow, in 1889; they had nine children.

Kelly was a devout evangelical Christian and was known to share his faith openly. Kelly was at one time a trustee of the Moody Bible Institute, and he wrote an essay entitled A scientific man and the Bible: A Personal Testimony, where he expressed his most cherished beliefs, including the divinity of Christ. This was published in the first volume of The Fundamentals, the founding work of Christian fundamentalism. In addition, he wrote the work How I Study My Bible (1926).

He was a friend of H. L. Mencken and was frequently referred to in Mencken's writings.

Bibliography

Besides contributing some 300 articles to medical journals and editing, with C. P. Noble, Gynecology and Abdominal Surgery (volume i, 1907; volume ii, 1908), he published:

• Operative Gynecology (two volumes, 1899)
• The Vermiform Appendix and its Diseases (1905, 1909)
• Walter Reed and Yellow Fever (1906, 1907)
• Medical Gynecology (1908)
• Gynecology and abdominal surgery, with Charles P Noble (1908)
• Myomata of the Uterus, with T. S. Cullen (1909)
• Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography (1912)
• American Medical Botanists (1913)
• Diseases of the Kidneys, Ureters, and Bladder, with C. F. Burnam, (two volumes, 1914)
• American Medical Biographies with Walter L. Burrage (1920), 2nd edition of Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography
• Dictionary of American medical biography; lives of eminent physicians of the United States and Canada, from the earliest times with Walter L. Burrage (1928), 3rd edition of Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography
• Electrosurgery, with Grant E. Ward (1932)

Eponyms

• Kelly's sign — If the ureter is teased with an artery forceps, it will contract like a snake or worm.

• Kelly speculum — A rectal speculum, tubular in shape and fitted with an obturator.

• Kelly forceps – Large haemostatic forceps; arguably among the most common and best known surgical instruments ever.

• Kelly's stitch — Surgery for the bladder neck to correct stress incontinence of urine.

See also

• Works written by or about Howard Atwood Kelly at Wikisource

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