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 th ...

who conducted the

autopsy An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any dis ...

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 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 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 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 wes ...

, 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, 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. In 1988, Dr. Harvey retired and moved to

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas and Wakarusa Rivers. As of the 2020 census ...

. 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 Engl ...

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. 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 mye ...

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 The brain of Albert Einstein has been a subject of much research and speculation. Albert Einstein's brain was removed within seven and a half hours of his death. His apparent regularities or irregularities in the brain have been used to support v ...

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 i ...

, 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 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 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