Fredrick Arthur Willius Explained

Fredrick Arthur Willius
Honorific Suffix:MD, FACP, FACS
Birth Date:24 November 1888
Birth Place:Saint Paul, Minnesota, US
Death Place:Rochester, Minnesota, US
Education:University of Minnesota (BS), University of Minnesota Medical School (MD, MS in Medicine)
Occupation:Cardiologist, professor
Years Active:1915–1953
Field:Cardiology, History of medicine
Work Institutions:Mayo Clinic
Specialism:Electrocardiography
Research Field:Coronary heart disease, Angina, Senescence, Thrombosis
Module2:
Child:yes
Thesis Title:Experimental Diabetes and Pancreatic Transplantation
Thesis Year:1914
Signature:FAW Signature.png
Prizes:Rollin E. Cutts Prize in Surgery (1913)

Fredrick Arthur Willius (November 24, 1888  - October 19, 1972) was an American research cardiologist and medical historian who was the founding director of the Cardiology section at the Mayo Clinic.[1]

Life

Early life and education

Fredrick Arthur Willius was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Gustav Otto Conrad Willius (November 25, 1831 – September 26, 1924) and his wife Emma (née Klausmeyer, August 30, 1855 – April 26, 1933). Gustav Willius and his brother, Ferdinand, were German immigrants who settled in St. Paul and established themselves in banking and finance. The Willius name (; pronounced as /de/) is a Latinized form of German: Wille, and the family, which is originally native to Kassel, has borne it since at least the 18th century.[2] [3] Through his father's family, Willius was a third cousin of the scientist Albert Wigand, the general Adolf von Deines, and the physician Georg Ledderhose. Willius himself never met any of these cousins, but he and Ledderhose corresponded prior to the latter's death, and his uncle Ferdinand actually met General von Deines in Europe, in large part thanks to his position as Prussian Consul in Saint Paul.[4] Emma Klausmeyer's father was Wilhelm Klausmeyer, himself an immigrant from Bavaria, who was a choir director, a pianist, and a member of the board of directors of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.[5] Fredrick's maternal uncle Alfred Klausmeyer was the founder of the Anchor Buggy company, an early American manufacturer of automobiles.[6] Fredrick's early education took place in the public schools of Dayton's Bluff, where he was born and raised. In 1906, shortly after beginning his third year at Mechanic Arts High School, Willius was struck with an attack of acute appendicitis, but when the first operation proved unsuccessful and complications set in, he was operated on by Dr. Arnold Schwyzer on the family's kitchen table, and after a period of convalescence, he was returned to health.[7] Willius credited this experience with inspiring him to pursue medicine, which went firmly against his father's wishes that he study architecture. Despite his father's reluctance, Fredrick graduated from high school with honors, at which point he enrolled in the University of Minnesota, with the intention to study medicine. He graduated from the university in 1912 as a Bachelor of Science, and in 1914 as a Doctor of Medicine. He was a member of Phi Rho Sigma Medical Society, as well as the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society.[7] During his third year at the University of Minnesota, he participated in research with James F. Corbett on the causes and pathology of diabetes mellitus, for which he was awarded the Rollin E. Cutts Medal for experimental surgery.[8] After graduation, Willius entered into a twelve-month internship at the University Hospital, and in 1915, he began his three-year fellowship in surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.[8]

Marriage and family

On September 26, 1917, Willius married Stella Mae (née Popple, March 14, 1891 – June 22, 1986), the daughter of Herbert Eugene Popple (January 1858 – October 15, 1935) and Jennie Johnson (née Norwegian: Johanne Kristoffersdatter, November 14, 1856 – May 27, 1952). Stella was born and raised on her parents' farm in Stewartville, Minnesota, and moved to Rochester in 1916. Stella's elder sister Corena had married Dr. William Plummer, the brother of Willius' mentor Henry Plummer in 1911, and this connection helped Stella find work at the Mayo clinic, as a technician in the pathology laboratory. It was while working at Mayo that the young couple became acquainted, and they were married shortly after.[9] Their marriage produced three daughters.[7]

Medical career

Willius' arrival in Rochester in 1915 coincided with the inauguration of the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, a collaboration between the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota, which enabled him to receive his Master of Science in Medicine through study and work at the clinic, rather than having to return to the medical school in Minneapolis.[10] Entering into his fellowship, Willius was assigned to work with Henry Stanley Plummer, one of the most respected diagnosticians in the country, and it was in working with Plummer that Fredrick realized his interest lay in internal medicine and not surgery, which led to a change of specialty.[11]

Plummer and his colleague John M. Blackford had, in 1915, installed at the Mayo Clinic one of the first ECG machines in the country, only five years after Alfred Cohn's successful adoption of the technology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The following year, Willius was appointed first assistant in Medicine, and assigned to work with Blackford and Plummer in the newly established ECG lab.[12] In 1917, he published his first paper with Blackford, on chronic heart-block, which helped establish his credentials as an expert in the field of echocardiography. Later that year, Blackford left Mayo to help start the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, at which point Willius was promoted to head of the lab.[10] By 1920, Willius had received his Master of Science in Medicine, and been promoted to Associate in medicine, where his passion for cardiology and diseases of the heart had become apparent. Cardiology was still in its early years as a medical specialty, particularly in the United States, so other doctors throughout the Clinic often asked Willius to consult on their cases involving heart conditions.[13]

In 1922, Willius was asked by Plummer, Will Mayo, and Charles Mayo to organize a new section at the Mayo Clinic: cardiology.[14] Willius would remain chief of the cardiology section until his retirement in 1945, after which he remained a senior consultant for more than a decade. Given the youth of cardiology in this nation, much of the early work at the section revolved around creating standards with which to evaluate patients, both in terms of clinical practice, as well as collecting pertinent medical data to advance the field. During the first year alone, patients from sixteen states were admitted to the cardiology section. This indicated a serious need for specialized heart care, and so additional funding was staff were secured to increase the capacity.[15] Like his mentor, Plummer, Willius took theory and practice very seriously as a clinician, and so laid out strict rules for how patients were to be seen in his section:

In addition to his clinical duties, Willius was made an instructor at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine (now the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science) in 1920. In 1922, he was promoted to assistant professor, in 1927 to associate professor, and in 1945, upon his retirement from practice, to full professor.[8] While focusing on his clinical and educational roles, Willius also actively engaged in cardiological research, including continuing his research into the use and effectiveness of EKG technology.[16] As his career advanced, he also developed an interest in the formation and pathology of thromboses,[17] [18] [19] the therapeutic use of digitalis,[20] [21] [22] and the effect of syphilis on the human heart.[23] [24] [25] In 1938, Willius and his colleagues John English and Joseph Berkson were among the first clinicians to accurately predict a direct link between tobacco smoking and heart disease, and this research later contributed to reversing decades of false information about the dangers of smoking.[26] [27] His retirement meant that he could focus on another of his great loves: the history of medicine. In 1941, Willius and Thomas Keys published Cardiac Classics. A Collection of Classic Works on the Heart and Circulation, with Comprehensive Biographic Accounts of the Authors, an exploration of the history of the heart as it pertained to medicine. From William Harvey to James B. Herrick, the book reproduced work by fifty-one scholars, scientists, and doctors who contributed to our understanding of the hear and its workings, and who helped make modern cardiology what it is. In addition, the lives of the selected authors are outlined in detail, further explaining the context of their discoveries and their meaning to scholars today.[28] In 1949, along with his writing partner Thomas J. Dry, Willius wrote A History of the Heart and the Circulation. At once a historical and a medical text, the book explores the intersection between the heart, blood, and medical knowledge, spanning the centuries from ancient times to the present. While of a similar vein to Willius's first volume, this adopts more holistic approach to the study of history, and focuses on exploring and analyzing the trajectory of the science of medicine as a whole, rather than reproducing Latin: verbatim the works of previous scholars.[29]

Willius was elected president of the Minnesota chapter of the American Heart Association in 1925. His lifelong organizational ties also included the American Medical Association, the Minnesota Medical Association, the Olmsted-Fillmore-Houston-Dodge Counties Medical Society, the Southern Minnesota Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American College of Surgeons, the Minnesota Society for the Study of the Heart and Circulation (President 1925 and 1941), the Central Society for Clinical Research (Charter member), the Central Interurban Clinical Club, the Minnesota Society of Internal Medicine, and the Alumni Association of the Mayo Foundation.[7]

In 1957, Willius was invited by the Royal College of Surgeons to give a speech on the legacy and contributions of William Harvey to his field of cardiology, and medicine as a whole. Due to ill health, he was unable to attend the conference, but his speech was delivered in his stead by his friend and colleague Thomas Forrest Cotton.[30]

A lifelong smoker, Willius suffered from emphysema for much of his later life, but it was ultimately an unexpected diagnosis of bladder cancer that took his life on October 19, 1972.[7] In honor of "his appreciation of medical history and the great physicians of ages past, as well as for his dedication to those who would come after him", the Willius Society: A History of Medicine Organization for Mayo Clinic Residents and Fellows, was named after him.[31]

Books published

Articles published

As sole author:

In collaboration:

Notes and References

  1. Book: Physicians of the Mayo Clinic and the Mayo Foundation. 551. Minneapolis. The University of Minnesota Press. 1937. .
  2. https://orka.bibliothek.uni-kassel.de/viewer/image/1358331788521_1775/1/ Casselische Polizey- Und Commerzien-Zeitung. Kassel: Verl. des Waisenhauses, 1775.
  3. https://books.google.com/books?id=kIMAAAAAcAAJ Staats- und Adreß-Calender auf das Jahr Christi 1780. Waisen- und Findelhaus, Hessen-Kassel, 1780.
  4. Rippley . La Vern J. . 2003 . Monumentality: How Post-1871 Germans in the United States Expressed Their Ethnicity . Yearbook of German-American Studies . 38. 139–153. 10.17161/ygas.v38i.19048 . 256571368 . free .
  5. Book: Burgheim, Max. Cincinnati in Wort und Bild. M. & R. Burgheim. Cincinnati. 1888.
  6. Book: Hischak, Thomas S.. 1927:A Day-by-Day Chronicle of the Jazz Age's Greatest Year. London. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2019. 67.
  7. Book: Willius, Fredrick A.. A Genealogic Narrative of the Willius Family and Related Families. Unpublished manuscript. Rochester. 1948.
  8. Special Meeting of the University Senate and The Twin Cities Campus Assembly: Minutes. University of Minnesota, 1973.
  9. Book: Burnquist. Joseph A. A.. Minnesota and Its People. 4. Chicago. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. 1924. 283.
  10. Fye. W. Bruce. W. Bruce Fye. Presidential Address: The Origins and Evolution of the Mayo Clinic from 1864 to 1939: A Minnesota Family Practice Becomes an International "Medical Mecca". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 84. 3. 2010. 323–357 . 10.1353/bhm.2010.0019 . 21037395 . 44839983 .
  11. Book: Fye, W. Bruce. W. Bruce Fye. Caring for the Heart: Mayo Clinic and the Rise of Specializatione. New York. Oxford University Press. 2015.
  12. Fye. W. Bruce. W. Bruce Fye. A history of the origin, evolution, and impact of electrocardiography. Am J Cardiol. 73. 1994. 13 . 937–949 . 10.1016/0002-9149(94)90135-X . 8184849 .
  13. Book: Fye, W. Bruce. W. Bruce Fye. American Cardiology: The History of a Specialty and its College. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore. 1996.
  14. Book: Clapesattle, Helen. 1941 . The Doctors Mayo. Minneapolis. The University of Minnesota press. 719. 978-5555502827.
  15. Willius. Fredrick A.. 1927. Cardiology in the Mayo Clinic and the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Methods and Problems of Medical Education. 8. 193–197.
  16. Willius. Fredrick A.. 1939. A Comprehensive Approach to the Diagnosis of Diseases of the Heart. Med. Clin. North Am.. 23. 4. 1007–1019. 10.1016/S0025-7125(16)36840-7 .
  17. Willius. Fredrick A.. 1936. Life Expectancy in Coronary Thrombosis. JAMA. 106. 22. 1890–1894. 10.1001/jama.1936.02770220026008 .
  18. Allen. E.V.. Willius. F.A.. 1929. Disease of the Coronary Arteries Associated With Thrombo-Angiitis Obliterans of the Extremities. Ann. Intern. Med.. 3. 1. 35–39. 10.7326/0003-4819-3-1-35 .
  19. Goldsmith. G.A.. Willius. F.A.. 1937. Bodily Build and Heredity in Coronary Thrombosis. Ann. Intern. Med.. 10. 8. 1181–1186. 10.7326/0003-4819-10-8-1181 .
  20. Willius. F.A.. 1937. Digitalis: Its Rational Use. Med. Clin. North Am.. 21. 3. 761–769. 10.1016/S0025-7125(16)37181-4 .
  21. Willius. F.A.. 1944. The Controversial Issue of the Use of Digitalis in Coronary Arterial Disease. Med. Clin. North Am.. 28. 4. 905–910. 10.1016/S0025-7125(16)36195-8 .
  22. Willius. F.A.. 1946. Digitalis Intoxication. J Ark Med Soc. 42. 219. 21019118 .
  23. Willius. F.A.. 1930. A Study of the Course of Syphilitic Cardiovascular Disease. American Heart Journal. 6. 1. 113–115. 10.1016/S0002-8703(30)90398-5 .
  24. Willius. F.A.. 1934. Newer Concepts of Cardiovascular Syphilis. J. Tennessee. M. A.. 27. 494.
  25. Willius. F.A.. 1936. Clinic On Syphilitic Aortitis and Aortitic Insufficiency With Anginal Syndromes. Proc. Staff Meet. Mayo Clin.. 11. 692.
  26. English, John P., et al. Tobacco and Coronary Disease. JAMA, 1940;115(16):1327–1329.
  27. Buechley, Robert W., et al. Relationship of Amount of Cigarette Smoking to Coronary Heart Disease Mortality Rates in Men. Circulation, 1958;XVIII(6):1085–1090.
  28. Cardiac Classics. A Collection of Classic Works on the Heart and Circulation, with Comprehensive Biographic Accounts of the Authors (Fifty-five contributions by 51 authors). Arch Intern Med (Chic). 1942;69(3):548
  29. East, Terence. History of Cardiology. The British Medical Journal, 1949;1(4604):588–588.
  30. "Harvey Tercentenary Congress: Opening Session At R.C.S.” The British Medical Journal 1957;1(5031):1357–59.
  31. Web site: LibGuides: The Willius Society: A History of Medicine Organization for Mayo Clinic Residents and Fellows: Home.

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