Myrtelle May Moore Canavan
HMS/HSDM Joint Committee on the Status of Women (JCSW) Accessed July 21, 2009. (June 24, 1879 – August 4, 1953) was an American

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and medical researcher. She was one of the first female

pathologist Pathology is the study of the causal, causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when us ...

s and is best known for publishing a description of

Canavan disease Canavan disease, or Canavan-Van Bogaert-Bertrand disease, is a rare and fatal autosomal recessive degenerative disease that causes progressive damage to nerve cells and loss of white matter in the brain. It is one of the most common degenerative ...

in 1931.

Life and career

Born in Greenbush Township, near St. Johns, Michigan, Canavan studied at (Michigan) State Agricultural College (now

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

), the

University of Michigan Medical School Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan Health System or UMHS before 2017) is the wholly owned academic medical center of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan Medicine includes the Universi ...

, and

Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

, from which she received her M.D. in 1905. Canavan, Myrtelle M. (Myrtelle May), b. 1879. Papers, 1898-1945: Finding Aid.
Harvard University Library Online Archival Search Information System. Biographical Note. Accessed July 21, 2009. In 1905 she married Dr. James F. Canavan. In 1907 she was appointed assistant bacteriologist at

Danvers State Hospital The Danvers State Hospital, also known as the State Lunatic Hospital at Danvers, The Danvers Lunatic Asylum, and The Danvers State Insane Asylum, was a psychiatric hospital located in Danvers, Massachusetts. It was built in 1874, and opened in 18 ...

in Massachusetts, where she met Elmer Ernest Southard, Bullard Professor of

Neuropathology Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole-body autopsies. Neuropathologists usually work in a department of anatomic pathology, but work closely with the clinic ...

at Harvard Medical School, who encouraged her interest in neuropathology.Dr. Myrtelle May Canavan
National Library of Medicine: Changing the Face of Medicine: Physicians. Accessed July 21, 2009. In 1910 she became resident

Boston State Hospital Boston State Hospital is a historic mental hospital located in Mattapan and Dorchester, Massachusetts. The court case '' Rogers v. Okin'', which increases patient consent rights, was filed by a class action A class action, also known as a class-a ...

and in 1914 was appointed pathologist to the Massachusetts Department of Mental Diseases. She was also an instructor of neuropathology at the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is amon ...

. After Southard's death in 1920, Canavan became acting director of the laboratories of the

Boston Psychopathic Hospital The Boston Psychopathic Hospital, established at 74 Fenwood Road in 1912, was one of the first mental health hospitals in Massachusetts, United States. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The name was cha ...

, which would later become the

Massachusetts Mental Health Center The Massachusetts Mental Health Center is a historic psychiatric hospital complex at 75 Fenwood Road in the Longwood medical area of Boston, Massachusetts. The center was founded in 1912 as the Boston Psychopathic Hospital. Its original main ...

. From 1920 until her retirement in 1945, she was an associate professor of neuropathology at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

and curator of the

Warren Anatomical Museum The Warren Anatomical Museum, housed within Harvard Medical School's Countway Library of Medicine, was founded in 1847 by Harvard professor John Collins Warren, whose personal collection of 160 unusual and instructive anatomical and pathological ...

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

, where she added more than 1,500 specimens and also improved record-keeping and discarded damaged specimens.Mentor 1: Myrtelle M. Canavan
The Stethoscope Sorority: Stories from the Archives for Women in Medicine. Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Library of Medicine. Accessed July 21, 2009. However, her official title was "assistant curator" because of objections to a woman heading the museum, and she was never appointed to the Harvard faculty. Canavan died of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

in 1953.

Research

Canavan's research focused on the effects of nervous system damage on the mind and body. She was also very interested in

bacteriology Bacteriology is the branch and specialty of biology that studies the morphology, ecology, genetics and biochemistry of bacteria as well as many other aspects related to them. This subdivision of microbiology involves the identification, classificat ...

; the first of the 79 articles she published was on

bacillary dysentery Bacillary dysentery is a type of dysentery, and is a severe form of shigellosis. It is associated with species of bacteria from the family Enterobacteriaceae. The term is usually restricted to ''Shigella'' infections. Shigellosis is caused by one ...

and the first article she co-authored with Southard concerned bacterial invasions of blood and cerebrospinal fluid. She studied the pathology of diseases affecting the optic nerve, spleen, brain, and spinal cord, and she examined cases of sudden death, multiple sclerosis, and microscopic hemorrhage. By prior agreement, she performed the autopsy on

Frank Bunker Gilbreth Frank Bunker Gilbreth (July 7, 1868 – June 14, 1924) was an American engineer, consultant, and author known as an early advocate of scientific management and a pioneer of time and motion study, and is perhaps best known as the father and c ...

, identifying the

arteriosclerosis Arteriosclerosis is the thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of Artery, arteries. This process gradually restricts the blood flow to one's organs and tissues and can lead to severe health risks brought on by atherosclerosis ...

that had caused his death.Lancaster, Jane. (2004) ''Making Time. Lillian Moller Gilbreth: A Life Beyond "Cheaper by the Dozen"''. Boston: Northeastern University Press. p. 14. And in 1925 she published ''Elmer Ernest Southard and His Parents: A Brain Study'', a report on her examination of the brains of her mentor and his parents. She also trained neuropathologist

Louise Eisenhardt Louise Eisenhardt (17 July 1891 – 22 January 1967) was one of the first neuropathologists and was considered leading world expert on tumor diagnosis. She became the first woman president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. ...

, who became a renowned expert in diagnosing brain tumors. In 1959 she was credited with training 70% of the neurosurgeons then certified. She had a particular interest in the neuropathology of mental illness. With Southard and others, she contributed to a monograph series called Waverley Researches in the Pathology of the Feeble-Minded. She is most famous for a paper she co-wrote in 1931 discussing the case of a child who had died at sixteen months and whose brain had a spongy white section. Canavan was the first to identify this degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, which was later named "Canavan Disease."

References

External links

Myrtelle M. Canavan papers, 1898-1945. GA 10.20. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.

E.E. Southard papers, 1892-1940 (inclusive), 1905-1920 (bulk). GA 81. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canavan, Myrtelle 1879 births 1953 deaths Drexel University alumni Michigan State University alumni University of Michigan Medical School alumni American pathologists Boston State Hospital physicians Women pathologists 20th-century American women scientists People from Clinton County, Michigan 20th-century American scientists Scientists from Michigan Neurological disease deaths in Massachusetts Deaths from Parkinson's disease

Life and career

Research

See also

References

External links