Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-r5d9c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-21T09:31:08.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The relationship between Maude Abbott and Helen Taussig: connecting the historical dots

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2008

William N. Evans
William N. Evans*
Affiliation:
Children’s Heart Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America Division of Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Nevada School of Medicine, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America
*
Correspondence to: William N. Evans MD, FACC. Children’s Heart Center, 3006 S. Maryland Pkwy, Ste. 690, Las Vegas, NV 89109, USA. Tel: (702) 732-1290; Fax: (702) 732-1385; E-mail: WNevans50@aol.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The literature has scant documentation of the relationship between the important founders of paediatric cardiology, Maude Abbott and Helen Taussig. Recently discovered entries in the diaries kept by Maude Abbott provide evidence for a close connection between them. Further evidence suggests that their association was complex, and influenced by outside factors, such as their difference in age and era-related notoriety. In this review, I attempt to define more clearly the relationship between these two early icons of paediatric cardiology.

Keywords

Historypaediatric cardiologyMcGill UniversityJohns Hopkins University

Information

Type
Historical Vignette
Information
Cardiology in the Young , Volume 18 , Issue 6 , December 2008 , pp. 557 - 564
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

1.MacDermot, HE. Maude Abbott: A Memoir. MacMillan Company, Toronto, 1941.Google Scholar
2.Abbott, ME. Autobiographical sketch (1928). McGill Medical Journal 1959; 28: 127–152.Google Scholar
3.Hacker, C. The Indomitable Lady Doctors. Formac Publishing Company, Halifax, 1984.Google Scholar
4.Nuland, SB. Doctors: Biography of Medicine. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1988, pp 432–433.Google Scholar
5.Waugh, D. Maudie of McGill: Dr. Maude Abbott and the Foundations of Heart Surgery. Hannah Institute and Dundurn Press, Toronto, 1992.Google Scholar
6. Abbott E. All Heart: Notes on the Life of Dr. Maude Elizabeth Seymour Abbott, MD, Pioneer Woman Doctor and Cardiologist. E. Abbott, Saint Anne de Bellevue [Quebec], 1997.Google Scholar
7.Ferencz, C. Maude E Abbott – physician and scientist of international fame. Can J Cardiol 2000; 16: 889–892.Google Scholar
8.Kelen, S. Maude Abbott: A biography. Can J Cardiol 2000; 16: 893–898.Google Scholar
9. Mulchey KM. Maude Abbott: a biography. In: Whitelaw WA (ed.) History of Medicine Day Conference. Calgary, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, 2004, pp 233–240. .Google Scholar
10.Waugh, D. Canada’s forgotten medical school. CMAJ 1989; 141: 1170.Google Scholar
11.Abbott, ME. On so-called functional murmurs. Montreal Med J 1899; 28: 1–13.Google Scholar
12.Abbott, ME. Sir William Osler. Transactions of the Alumnae Association of the Woman’s College of Pennsylvania, 1924.Google Scholar
13. Holmes AF. Case of malformation of the heart. Edinburgh Trans Medico-Chir Society 1824: 252–254.Google Scholar
14.Abbott, ME. Unique case of malformation of the heart? Defect of the interventricular septum; rudimentary right ventricle; patent foramen ovale; great dilation of the right auricle and right auricular appendix. Montreal Med J 1901; 30: 522–532.Google Scholar
15.Dobell, AR, Van Praagh, R. The Holmes heart: historic associations and pathologic anatomy. Am Heart J 1996; 132: 437–445.Google Scholar
16.Abbott, ME. Congenital cardiac disease. In: Osler, W, McCrae, T (eds). Modern Medicine: Its Theory and Practice (vol IV). Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia, 1908, pp 323–425; ed. 2, 1915, pp 323–448; ed. 3, 1927, pp 612–812.Google Scholar
17.Abbott, ME. The diagnosis of congenital heart disease. In: Blumer’s Bedside Diagnosis (vol II). WB Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 1928, pp 353–514.Google Scholar
18.Baldwin, J. To Heal the Heart of a Child. Walker and Company, New York, 1992.Google Scholar
19. Goodman GL. A Gentle Heart: The life of Helen Taussig. (MD thesis). Yale University, New Haven, 1983.Google Scholar
20.Harvey, WP. A conversation with Helen Taussig. Medical Times 1978; 106: 28–44.Google Scholar
21.McNamara, DG, Helen, B. Taussig the original pediatric cardiologist. Medical Times 1978; 106: 23–27.Google Scholar
22.Nuland, SB. Doctors: Biography of Medicine. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1988, pp 422–456.Google Scholar
23.McNamara, DG, Manning, JA, Engle, MA, Whittemore, R, Neill, CA, Ferencz, C. Helen Brooke Taussig: 1898 to 1986. J Am Coll Cardiol 1987; 10: 662–671.Google Scholar
24.Taussig, HB, Meserve, FL. Rhythmic contractions in isolated strips of mammalian ventricle. Am J Physiol 1925; 72: 89–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25.Bernheim, BM. The Story of The Johns Hopkins. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1948.Google Scholar
26.Andrus, EC. Edward Perkins Carter, 1870–1955. Trans Assoc Am Physicians 1956; 69: 9–10.Google Scholar
27.Taussig, HB. Pediatric profile: Edwards A. Park. J Pediatr 1970; 77: 722–731.Google Scholar
28. McGill University Archives, Maude Abbott Trust, M.G. 1070. Maude Abbott diaries 1930–1940.Google Scholar
29. Abbott ME. Letter to Dr. Touzel, November 7, 1930. P111 Maude Abbott Fonds. Maude Abbott Letters-T. Osler Library, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Osler Library.Google Scholar
30.Abbott, ME. Centenary meeting British Medical Association: McGill University exhibit. Br Med J 1932; 2: 1197–1199.Google Scholar
31.Abbott, ME. Atlas of congenital cardiac disease. American Heart Association, New York, 1936.Google Scholar
32.Taussig, HB. Two cases of congenital malformation of the heart due to defective development of the right ventricle. Clinical and pathological findings. Journal of Technical Methods and Bulletin of the International Association of Medical Museums 1936; 16: 66–67.Google Scholar
33.Taussig, HB. The clinical and pathological findings in congenital malformations of the heart due to defective development of the right ventricle associated with tricuspid atresia or hypoplasia. Bull Johns Hopkins Hosp 1936; 59: 435–445.Google Scholar
34.Tucker, BL, Lindesmith, G, Takahashi, M. First Clinical Conference on Congenital Heart Disease. Grune & Strantton Inc, New York, 1979, pp 324–341.Google Scholar
35. Letters between Maude Abbott and Helen Taussig, between April 1935 and January 1937. P111 Maude Abbott Fonds. Maude Abbott Letters-T. Osler Library, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Osler Library.Google Scholar
36.Chavez, I. Diego Rivera, Sus Frescos en el Instituto Nacional de Cardiología. Francisco Orosco Munoz, Mexico City, 1946.Google Scholar
37.Blalock, A, Taussig, HB. The surgical treatment of malformations of the heart in which there is pulmonary stenosis or pulmonary atresia. JAMA 1945; 128: 189–202.Google Scholar
38.Taussig, HB. Congenital Malformations of the Heart. The Commonwealth Fund, New York, 1947.Google Scholar
39.Keating, JM, Edwards, WA, Horine, EF. Diseases of the Heart and Circulation in Infancy and Adolescence. Blakiston, Philadelphia, 1888.Google Scholar
40.Laubry, C, Pezzi, C. Traité des maladies congénitales du Coeur. Baillière, Paris, 1921.Google Scholar
41.Brown, JW. Congenital Heart Disease. Staples Press Limited, London, 1939.Google Scholar
42.Taussig, HB. On the evolution of our knowledge of congenital malformations of the heart, the T. Duckett Jones Memorial Lecture. Circ 1965; 31: 768–777.Google Scholar
43.Taussig, HB. Pediatric cardiology – past, present, and future. Medical Times 1978; 106: 107–115.Google ScholarPubMed
44.Bing, RJ. Cardiology: The Evolution of the Science and the Art, p. 98. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1999, p 98.Google Scholar