Medicine: Harvey of the Hopkins

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Ten years ago, Abner McGehee Harvey, his M.D. degree so new he had barely had time to frame it, was an intern at Johns Hopkins hospital. Last week, at 34, Abner Harvey became the hospital's physician in chief. Appointed to Sir William Osier's old chair of medicine at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Harvey had won a post as honored by doctors as a Supreme Court robe is by lawyers.

To older, greyer doctors, Dr. Harvey's selection as successor to venerable Dr. Warfield Theobald Longcope, 68, was a surprise. It should not have been. Even though such prestige-heavy professorships usually go to more experienced men, Johns Hopkins acquired its early fame through the work of four comparative youngsters, the original "Big Four": William Henry Welch (who began at 43), William Stewart Halsted (41), Howard Atwood Kelly (35), and Sir William Osier* (44). Dr. Harvey is young enough to carry on the tradition. He is also able enough to carry on the good work.

After interning at the Hopkins, Dr. Harvey studied under Sir Henry Hallet Dale at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, on a fellowship from the American College of Physicians. There he became a nerve and muscle specialist. In 1941, while an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt, he was "pulled" by the Army with other members of a Hopkins medical unit and sent to the Pacific. He studied the effects of atabrine on malaria in Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines. Now a major on terminal leave, he will take on his new job in June, able to view his immediate future more complacently than most returning doctors.