Evening star., 1940-10-05
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study i,
BIZ Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r. Henry.
Fifty years ago the son Of Confed-
crate general, an undergraduate at the
University Of Virginia, tried to get
job ON Texas newspaper.
Fortunately he failed, returned to
Charlottesville to study medicine, and
thenceforth made history, instead Of re-
porting it, as one of the worlds out
standing surgeons. Hugh Young might
have become good reporter. Whenever
he lectures before q medical society 1t Is
an event, partly due to the picturesque
ness and saltiness Of his comments and
partly to the absorbing interest of the
experiences he relates.
He entered the profession Of medicine
equipped with a mechanical bent, bold
imagination, and such smattering Of
knowledge of the human body as could
be absorbed during two years at college.
He had the good fortune to get an in
ternship at Johns Hopkins, where his
natural genius was developed from con-
tact with men who were revolutionizing
the science of healing. He has been
identified with that institution ever since,
has treated some of the foremost figures
in the world Of his time, invented new
operations, performed surgical miracles.
1t is the story Of this experience which
he tells in his autobiography, just pub
liShed. Celebrated names stand out on
almost every page-names OF patients,
associates in medicine, comrades OF the
A. E. F.. Men came from all over the
earth and from all ranks of life to his
Baltimore clinic. Perhaps the most dis
tinguished of his patients was Woodrow
Wilson. For the first time he gives the
details of events at the White House in
the closing days of the administration.
He was both physician and confdant
of the President and some Of the sound
political advice he gave him has turned
out to be extremely fortunate for the
country.
He was called in following the first
paralytic stroke suffered by Mr.. Wilson
in October, 1919 determined after ex-
animation that an apparently necessary
surgical operation would prove fatal, and
then, by drawing upon his A. E. F. ex-
perience, decided to let nature take its
course and probably gave the President
nearly two more years OF life.
"As medical man." he says, Il feel
convinced that Wilson's death was due
to mental worry brought on by the ma
lignant opposition of his enemies in Con-
gress. The paralytic strokes were un-
doubtedly caused by the extremely stren-
uous and exhausting trip he took in mid
summer to make personal report to the
American people of what he had done in
France. His enemies did not relax when
he lay PROSTATE at the White House
Due to the nature of his specially much
OF DR.. Young's practice has been with
men past middle life. One of his many
outstanding services has been the per-
lection of the prostate gland operation
which formerly was almost invariably
fatal 1t is one of the too few services
medicine has been able to render in
field bound to become of increasing i'm
portance in the next generation with the
steadily increasing age level of the pop
ulation.
Soldiers of the A. E. F. have special
reason to remember DR.. Young. He
went to France with Gen Pershing, noted
the extreme likelihood of venereal dis
ease from the experience of the first
American troops overseas, and put into
operation the system of control which
eventually was applied to the entire
Army. He is proud of the fact that the
two millions of Americans eventually
came home with a far lower venereal
incidence than that of any other body of
troops in modern history-far lower than
would have been experienced by the
same men had they remained in civilian
life. 1t would be bootless to speculate on
the millions in disqualification costs and
veterans compensation DR.. Young saved
the Nation.
A review of the autobiography is in
danger of becoming a catalogue of the
mans achievements. One of the most
fascinating chapters deals with a field
which is peculiarly his own-the SEEM
ingly miraculous featS of surgery by
which he has repaired the carelessneSs
of nature in sex differentiation. He has
transformed individuals born and reared
with all the characteristics of women
into robust men, and, in at least one case,
what seems to have been exactly the
opposite.
As might be expected, these opera
tions and the rationale behind them are
the subjects of DR.. Youngs most widely
attended medical lectures and exhibits.
Actually they constitute very small part
of his life work. They have been valu-
able not alone for themselves but for the
light they have thrown on the involved
mechanism of sex differentiation.