Thomas Stoltz Harvey (October 10, 1912 – April 5, 2007) was an American

pathologist Pathology is the study of the 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 used in t ...

who conducted the autopsy on

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

in 1955. Harvey later kept Einstein's brain without permission for decades.

Early career

Harvey studied at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

as an undergraduate and later as a medical student under Dr.

Harry Zimmerman Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

. In his third year of medical school he contracted

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

and was bedridden for the next year in a sanatorium, claiming it to be one of the biggest disappointments of his life.

Autopsy of Albert Einstein

The autopsy was conducted at Princeton Hospital, Princeton NJ, on April 18 at 8:00 am. Einstein's brain weighed 1,230 grams - well within the normal human range. Dr. Harvey sectioned the preserved brain into 170 pieces in a lab at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, a process that took three full months to complete. Those 170 sections were then sliced in microscopic slivers and mounted onto slides and stained. There were 12 sets of slides created with hundreds of slides in each set. Harvey retained two complete sets for his own research and distributed the rest to handpicked leading pathologists of the time. No permission for the removal and preservation had been given by Einstein or his family, but when the family learned about the study, permission to proceed with the study was granted as long as the results were only published in scientific journals and not sensationalised.

Theft of Einstein's brain

In August, 1978, ''New Jersey Monthly'' reporter Steven Levy published an article, "I Found Einstein's Brain", based on his interview with Dr. Harvey when Harvey was working in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...

. In 1988, Dr. Harvey retired and moved to Lawrence, Kansas. In 1996, Harvey moved from

Weston, Missouri Weston is a town in Platte County, Missouri within the United States. The population was 1,641 at the 2010 census. History The Lewis and Clark Expedition stopped at "Bear Medison" island, near the location of today's city hall. Weston was the ol ...

to Titusville in

Hopewell Township, Mercer County, New Jersey Hopewell Township is a township in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Located within the Raritan Valley region, the township is an exurb of New York City in the New York metropolitan area as defined by the United States Census Bureau, ...

. In the 1994 documentary '' Relics: Einstein's Brain'',

Kinki University is a private non-sectarian and coeducational university based in Higashiosaka, Osaka, Japan with campuses in five other locations: Nara, Nara; Ōsakasayama, Osaka; Uchita, Wakayama; Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima; and Iizuka, Fukuoka. The En ...

Professor Sugimoto Kenji asks Harvey for a piece of the brain, to which Harvey consents and slices a portion of the brain-stem. Footage shows Harvey segmenting and handing over to Sugimoto a portion. In 1998, Harvey delivered the remaining uncut portion of Einstein's brain to Dr. Elliot Krauss, a pathologist at

University Medical Center at Princeton Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center (PMC), formerly known as the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro, is a 355-bed non-profit, tertiary, and academic medical center located in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey, servicing the we ...

. As

Marian Diamond Marian Cleeves Diamond (November 11, 1926 – July 25, 2017) was an American scientist and educator who is considered one of the founders of modern neuroscience. She and her team were the first to publish evidence that the brain can change with ...

and associates discovered, certain parts of Einstein's brain were found to have a higher proportion of

glial cells Glia, also called glial cells (gliocytes) or neuroglia, are non-neuronal cells in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system that do not produce electrical impulses. They maintain homeostasis, form myel ...

than the average male brain. In 2005, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Einstein's death, the 92-year-old Harvey gave interviews regarding the history of the brain from his home in New Jersey. Harvey died at the University Medical Center at Princeton on April 5, 2007 of complications of a stroke.

Legacy

In 2010, Harvey's heirs transferred all of his holdings constituting the remains of Albert Einstein's brain to the

National Museum of Health and Medicine The National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM) is a museum in Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, DC. The museum was founded by U.S. Army Surgeon General William A. Hammond as the Army Medical Museum (AMM) in 1862; it became the NMHM in ...

, including 14 photographs of the whole brain (which is now in fragments) never before revealed to the public.

Cultural references

The story of Harvey's theft of Einstein's brain, and its subsequent study, was explained in an episode of the

Science Channel Science Channel (often simply branded as Science; abbreviated to SCI) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel features programming focusing on science related to wilderness survival, engineering, man ...

show '' Dark Matters: Twisted But True'', a series which explores the darker side of scientific discovery and experimentation, which premiered on September 7, 2011. The program segment "The Secrets of Einstein's Brain" re-aired on the

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

on June 4, 2016.

References

External links

Newspaper Obituary for Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey Died April 5, 2007Doctor kept Einstein's brain in jar 43 yearsThe Whereabouts of Dr. Einstein's Brain
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harvey, Thomas Stoltz 1912 births 2007 deaths American pathologists People from Wichita, Kansas People from Lawrence, Kansas People from Weston, Missouri People from Hopewell Township, Mercer County, New Jersey Physicians from Louisville, Kentucky