William Holmes Crosby Jr . William Holmes Crosby ( December 1 , 1914 – January 15 , 2005 ) is considered by many to be one of the founding fathers of modern hematology . He published more the 450 peer - reviewed papers in the field , as well as those of oncology , gastroenterology , iron metabolism , nutrition and general medical practice . In addition he was an inventor and published translator of poetry . Early life . William Holmes Crosby Jr . was born in Wheeling , West Virginia . Six months later the family moved to Oil City , Pennsylvania . His father was an architect . His mother , Frances Irene Forrester , was a schoolteacher . Crosby was drawn toward medicine at an early age , attaching himself at age 12 to volunteer physicians who worked at the Boy scout camp he attended . In high school he discovered his love of literature from his sophomore English teacher , Dorothy Mann . Crosby attended University of Pennsylvania under a scholarship awarded to him by the Pennsylvania legislature . During this time , he began his life in research as a volunteer in the local hospital hematology lab . Crosby as a soldier and physician . In 1936 Crosby entered the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine . During his third year , he left school to spend six months on his back , recovering from tuberculosis . He graduated in 1940 and enlisted in the army , beginning a military internship at Walter Reed Army Hospital . After the outbreak of World War II , Crosby served two years at as an instructor in the Army ' s Medical Field Service School at Carlisle Barracks , Pennsylvania . He then requested overseas duty and , in 1942 , joined U . S . 85th Infantry Division . During this time Crosby , always seeking a something to study , studied Russian . He would keep vocabulary cards in his helmet . Crosby ' s battlefield duties resulted in a Bronze Star with an oak leaf cluster . Another cluster was added for his service in Korea . After the war Crosby returned as an instructor to the Army ' s Medical Field Service School , now moved to Fort Sam Houston , Texas . From there , he enrolled in an internal medicine residency at Brooke General Hospital where he was put in charge of an over - flow ward . He discovered at that time that there was no hematology support in the state of Texas and thus was forced to engage in an intense self - study course in the field . During a visit by William Dameshek , then a leader in United States hemotology , Crosby so impressed Dameshek in his handling of hematologic patients that the latter contacted the then Surgeon General to request that Crosby be formally trained in hematology . Soon after , Crosby was transferred to Pratt Diagnostic Hospital , which later became the New England Medical Center , as a hematology fellow . In 1950 he went on to the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital in London . Upon his return in 1951 , Crosby established both the hematology and oncology specialties at Walter Reed Army Hospital a position he would hold until 1965 . It was during this period that he began his long career as medical researcher . He wrote seminal papers in the areas of hematology and iron metabolism . He and his colleagues often served as their own lab rats , voluntarily undergoing such procedures as self - induced iron deficiency anemia , sub - dermal bone transplantation , and consumption of radio - labeled iron . In the winter of 1952 - 1953 , he volunteered to be sent to Korea . There he directed a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit . At this time he studied and published on various aspects of blood transfusion following injury . It was also during this period he became aware that some of the soldiers coming through the MASH unit may have suffered from Coeliac disease ( sprue ) . In addition he studied methods of blood transfusions and the quality of available blood and concluded that the procedures were safe and effective . Following Korea , he returned to Walter Reed and established a " Sprue Team " in Puerto Rico to study that tropical disease of the small bowel . With his desire to further understand the condition of the intestine , Crosby developed the Crosby Capsule , a biopsy pod which permitted physicians to non - invasively acquire samples of small intestine tissue . The device is still used with young patients . Hereditary nonspherocytic hemolytic anemia or Crosby ’ s syndrome was described by Crosby in 1950 . As a hematologist he continued in his research in the metabolism of iron , an essential component of red blood cell s . This led to the study of the iron - overload disease hemochromatosis . He maintained a lifelong interest in this disease , battling the FDA for years on the advisability of iron - fortification of wheat products as well as increasing medical awareness of the high incidence of what was , until quite recently , thought to be a rare disease . In 1965 , after more than 25 years of service , he retired from the Army to succeed William Dameshek at Tufts - New England Medical Center in Boston . Seven years later he moved on to Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in San Diego , Calif . , where he established a training program in hematology - oncology . At this time he was awarded the Legion of Merit by the army . In 1979 , at the age of 65 , he was recalled to active duty by the Secretary of the Army . He served another four years at Walter Reed and retired again into private practice in Joplin , Missouri where he spent the rest of his life , continuing to write papers on a variety of subjects . In 1983 , Dr . Crosby was invited by the Veterans Administration to become one of 11 professors in its nationwide Distinguished Physicians Program stationed in V . A . Medical Centers throughout the country . He resigned from that post two years later to take up private practice in Joplin , where he would spend his remaining years . Dr . Crosby authored nearly 500 research papers and served on the editorial boards of 12 medical journals and served on the editorial boards of nine medical journals . He is a laureate of the American College of Physicians . He also served on many committees over the years and was a member of numerous medical organizations . Crosby as translator . In 1974 , while he was preparing a chapter on the spleen for a textbook on hematology , he included in it his translation of a stanza from Baudelaire ' s poem Spleen to introduce the word with its original meaning of " the organ of anger and melancholy " . He began translating Baudelaire again in 1978 and for the next fourteen years worked on what would become " The Flowers of Evil & Paris Spleen " . These translations were unique in their maintenance of Baudelaire ’ s original rhythm and rhyme scheme . The collection was published as " Flowers of Evil and Paris Spleen " by Boa Editions in 1991 . The publication is augmented by original woodcuts done by Crosby ’ s son , David . Crosby completed a translation of Catullus however this was never published . < br style = " clear : both ; " >