French
DeutschWalter J. Dodd
Walter J. Dodd | |
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| Born | 22 April 1869 |
| Died | 19 December 1916 (aged 47) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Resting place | Mount Auburn Cemetery |
| Education | Vermont Medical School, M.D. (1908) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | X-rays |
Walter James Dodd (22 April 1869 – 19 December 1916) was a physician and one of the first radiologists in the United States. He was an early innovator in the use of X-rays in medicine, and suffered the consequences. He underwent over 50 surgical procedures to treat X-ray damage to his skin and had several appendages amputated. He ultimately died from X-ray induced cancer.
Early life[edit]
Dodd was born in London in 1869. His father died when he was young and he was sent to Boston to live with his sister.[1] He dropped out of school and worked as a janitor in a chemistry laboratory at Harvard College. He was curious about the lectures and experiments and gradually learned general chemistry impressing a professor at Harvard.[2]
Career[edit]
He became an apothecary at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1892, and soon after a registered pharmacist. Among the apothecary's duties was to take photographs of the hospital's patients. He quickly picked up the skills of photography, both taking photographs and developing film.[3]
In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen published his paper showing that X-rays could be used to take photographs of bones. Dodd quickly became the hospital's radiographer. He built several early X-ray generators. He was unaware of the dangers of X-rays and, by 1898, he had required skin grafts to repair X-ray burns.
In 1900, he entered Harvard Medical School to become fully trained as a physician, but found he needed to be away from his work to study better. He transferred to Vermont Medical School, where he earned his MD in 1908.
Personal life[edit]
Dodd had visible deformities due to X-ray exposure. By 1910, he had burns and scars on his face and several fingers had been partially amputated.[4]
Dodd died 19 December 1916, at his home in Boston.[5]
References[edit]
- ^ Macy, John Albert (1918). Walter James Dodd: A Biographical Sketch. Houghton Mifflin – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Brown, Percy (1995). "American martyrs to radiology. Walter James Dodd (1869-1916)". American Journal of Roentgenology. 165 (1): 181–184. doi:10.2214/ajr.165.1.7785582. PMID 7785582.
- ^ Suit, Herman D.; Loeffler, Jay S. (4 February 2011). Evolution of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9781441967442 – via Google Books.
- ^ "George Minot's medical education - Treating Diabetes". Treating Diabetes. Archived from the original on 16 December 2018. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
- ^ "Pioneer in X-Ray Study—Dr. W. J. Dodd, Graduate of University of Vermont, Died in Boston". The Barre Daily Times. December 19, 1916. p. 2.
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