Section 4 -

A Revolutionary in the Museum: Maude Abbott at McGill 1898-1936 Sylvia L. Asa Department of Pathology University Health Network and Toronto Medical Laboratories Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The story of Maude Abbott is one of persistence, patience and dedication to the field of Pathology. Her legacy impacts four major areas, and it is difficult to know which of these is the most important. Maude Abbott was responsible for the entry of women into the field of medicine in Canada, she catalogued and classified congenital cardiac defects, she assembled a medical museum that became the basis for the teaching program of McGill university and set the standard for pathology departments throughout the world, and she played a major role as a founding member of the International Association of Medical Museums, the precursor of the International Academy of Pathology. The story of Maude Abbott Maude Elizabeth Seymour Babin was born on March 18, 1869 in St. Andrews East (now called Saint-André-Est), Quebec , Maude's early life was difficult; she, her elder sister and mother were abandoned by her father, and she was orphaned at seven months when her mother died of tuberculosis. Fortunately, Maude and her sister Alice were legally adopted by their maternal grandmother, Mrs. William Abbott, who changed their surname to her own. The Abbotts were a respected and influential family. Her grandmother, then 62 years old, was a wonderful and gracious woman who raised her daughter's two children alone and provided them with tremendous support. It is said that when Maude daringly asked her grandmother if she could become a doctor, her remarkable grandmother replied, "Dear child, you may do anything you like." After home-schooling, Maude eagerly took her final high school year at a private seminary in Montreal . In June 1885 she won a scholarship to attend the McGill-affiliated Royal Victoria College for women. "I was consumed by an intense thirst for the school work, and hurled myself into it with tremendous zest, with the result that I was fortunate as to win the scholarship into McGill from the school." In 1886 Maude was in the third class of women students admitted to McGill's Faculty of Arts or, more accurately, to the Donalda Department for Women. Having simultaneously acquired a teaching diploma from the McGill Normal School, just as an "insurance policy," she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1890, winning the Lord Stanley Gold Medal and graduating as class valedictorian. Maude had come to love McGill: "I literally fell in love with McGill", she wrote. She was determined to study medicine there; however, the school would not accept women into its medical program. Maude sought help from her influential relative, John Abbott, a McGill graduate who had been Dean of its law faculty from 1855 until 1880 and who was to become Prime Minister of Canada in 1891-1892. He urged her to gain public support for the admission of women to Canadian medical schools. In 1889 Maude publicly petitioned to have medical courses for women at McGill and helped raise money to pay for them. Her petition sparked a public debate that caught the attention of the media, with Montreal's Gazette newspaper coming on-side and supporting the movement to allow women to study medicine. Despite this media support and the fact that Maude came from a family that helped establish the University, the Medical School held its ground. Undaunted, in 1890 Maude entered the Faculty of Medicine at Bishop's College in Montreal and was the only woman in her class. She graduated with honors in June 1894, winning the Senior Anatomy Prize and the Chancellor's Prize. Maude and her sister decided to travel to Europe but Alice contacted a brain disease leaving Maude to care for her over the next 40 years. Returning to Montreal , Maude opened her own office treating women and children in 1897. Working also at the Royal Victoria Hospital , she delved into pathology research and produced an important paper reporting a study of functional heart murmurs. At that time, the Montreal Medico-Chirurgical Society did not admit women, so Maude's paper was presented at their meeting by a male colleague. The paper was well received and Maude was nominated as and elected the Society's first female member. Early in her career, Dr. Abbott developed an abiding appreciation of the important roles a medical museum could play in the teaching program of a medical faculty. In the summer of 1898 she was appointed Assistant Curator of the Medical Museum of McGill University. The specimens there had never been organized and she learned how best to classify them by visiting some American medical museums. S he began cataloguing specimens and became interested in pathology. Reducing her practice, Dr. Abbott devoted most of her time to the Museum and was named Curator in 1901. She focused her studies on heart disease. Abbott was stimulated by the ideas of Sir William Osler, a fellow Canadian physician and medical educator known for his outstanding work in a variety of clinical fields and a professor at McGill, the University of Pennsylvania , Johns Hopkins, and Oxford . Maude had met Dr. Osler in Baltimore, and when he visited the McGill Museum in 1904, he was so impressed that he wrote McGill's Dean of Medicine, saying that Dr. Abbott's work "was the best McGill had done to date, (that) she had a genius for organizing [McGill's Medical Museum] and there was no collection in North America or Britain that came close to it." Knowing that she was intrigued with a rare three-chambered heart specimen, he invited her in 1905 to write the section on congenital cardiac disease for his textbook, Systems of Modern Medicine. Completed in December 1907 and published in 1908, this work promoted Dr. Abbott as the world authority in the field of congenital heart disease. These writings, based on findings of over four hundred cases, led Dr. Olser to write to her, "It is by far and away the very best thing ever written on the subject in English, possibly any language. For years it will be the standard work on the subject." This work made important contributions to the development of cardiac surgery. Almost to the end of the nineteenth century it was agreed that the heart could not be treated surgically. Through her careful classification and documentation as a pathologist, Abbott provided basic scientific data of strategic value to those who pioneered in the development of surgical procedures for the treatment of heart problems. Abbott's contacts in the US led to the development of the International Association of Medical Museums, known today as the International Academy of Pathology. From 1907 until 1938 she served as the international Secretary and Editor of the Journal of the International Association of Medical Museums. In 1910, eight years before women medical students were admitted, McGill University could no longer ignore Maude Abbott's brilliant work and the growth of her international reputation, even though she was female. While still refusing to admit women into its medical school, McGill took the unusual step of awarding her an honorary MD CM, which it had refused to let her earn as a student. McGill also appointed her to its medical staff as Lecturer in Pathology. A male physician with the same outstanding reputation would have been given an assistant professorship or even a full professorship. She was eventually appointed Assistant Professor in 1925. In 1923 she was invited to serve as Chief of Pathology at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. In 1926 Abbott returned to McGill in Canada where she continued her work on congenital heart disease that ultimately led to her book, The Atlas of Congenital Cardiac Disease published in 1936. Based on 1000 cases, she described a new classification system for congenital heart diseases. This work was praised as an important contribution to medical knowledge and paved the way for her to be made an honorary member of the all-male Osler Society. During her career, Dr. Abbott published over 140 papers and books and delivered countless lectures. She volunteered as Editor of the Canadian Medical Association journal from 1914-1918 when the editors served in World War I. She also authored studies on the history of medicine in Quebec and the McGill Medical Faculty. After Sir William Osler died in 1919, she dedicated a special edition of the Bulletin of Pathology to him. That 600-page volume with 120 contributors took six years to complete. She also wrote a history of nursing that was later used in nursing schools across the country. In 1936 Dr. Abbott turned 65 but had no wish to retire. McGill insisted, however, and compensated by granting her an honorary doctorate. She reluctantly retired from her long career as Curator. After she retired from McGill, the Carnegie Foundation gave her a grant to draw together all she had learned concerning heart disease. Unfortunately this work was never completed. Suffering a cerebral hemorrhage in the summer of 1940, she died on September 2 at the age of 71. The Legacy of Maude Abbott Known as the "beneficent tornado", Dr. Abbott's energy was legendary. She was a member (or a guest member when only men were admitted) of at least 18 organizations. In addition to more than 140 medical publications, she published 11 major historical works of a non-medical nature. After her death, the great Mexican painter Diego Rivera paid tribute to Maude Abbott in 1943. He included her among the fifty most important heart specialists in world history whom he portrayed in a mural for the National Institute of Cardiology of Mexico City . She was the only Canadian and the only woman depicted in the mural. "Maudie of McGill" is still very much a part of that university. Her papers reside in the Osler Library and her portrait is located in the Strathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building . On March 10, 2000 a bronze heritage plaque commemorating Dr. Abbott's national historic significance was unveiled for the entrance of the McIntyre Medical Building . The International Academy of Pathology continues to recognize Maude Abbot for her leadership and contributions. Its letterhead reads "Founded by Maude Abbott in 1906" and the Academy established the Maude Abbott Lecture in 1958. In 1924 she helped to found and became the first Chair of the Medical Women of Canada (now The Federation of Medical Women) a Canadian organization committed to the professional, social and personal advancement of women physicians. The Foundation established the Maude Abbott Memorial Scholarship Loan Fund in 1938. The Federation also successfully lobbied Canada Post to pay tribute to Dr. Abbott. A forty-six cent postage stamp entitled The Heart of the Matter was issued in her honor as part of the Millenium Collection on January 17, 2000 . Dr. Maude Abbott was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 1994. This world-renowned medical pioneer put Montreal and Canada on the map for pathology and cardiology. Through her published writings and devoted teaching, as well as her patient and persistent personal style, Maude Abbott made invaluable contributions to medicine and to the advancement of women. Her life distinguishes her as one of Pathology"s greatest heroines and role models. A selection of Maude Abbott's writings: The Atlas of Congenital Cardiac Disease Pigmentation-cirrhosis in a case of Haemochromatosis An Historical Sketch of the Medical Faculty of McGillUniversity On the Classification of Museum Specimens-American Medicine The Museum in Medical Teaching Congenital Cardiac Disease in Osler's Modern Medicine The Determination of Basal Metabolism by Indirect Calorimetry Florence Nightingale as seen in her portraits McGill's Heroic Past