The Linacre Quarterly
Volume 31 | Number 2 Article 7
May 1964 The ohnJ J. Larkin Memorial Award of the Guild of St. Luke of Boston: A Short History Charles A. Kane
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Recommended Citation Kane, Charles A. (1964) "The oJ hn J. Larkin Memorial Award of the Guild of St. Luke of Boston: A Short History," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 31 : No. 2 , Article 7. Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol31/iss2/7 ton and who is presently studying ei Laszlo Varga, the third year student The John J. Larkin Memorial Awar:l ther at the premedical, medical school, at Harvard Medical School, for his internship, or residen~ level .. T!1e 1seo project on protein-polysaccharide. in graphical and educational lim1tations teraction as studied by ultra-centrifu of the Guild of St. Luke of Boston have proved less trou~lesome to the gation. various Award Committees than the In November 1957 the Executive A SHORT HISTORY religious spec~fication. B~cause of per Council of the Guild, "disturbed and sistent rumblings of discontent, be dis::i.ppointed" by the poor response CHARLES A. KANE, M.D.* ginning in 1960'. the posters ann_o~nc to the ongmal award, appointed a new ing the award 1_nclud~d no_ rel1g10_us four-man Award Committee. This Concerned with the need to stimu He completed his Army ~ e .ical requirement. This policy std~ obt~ins committee was authorized to increase late original, basic research in human Corps career in August 1946 w1 tl t~e despite almost regular _recons1derah?n the annual stipend to $1000 and was biology and medicine amo?~ young rank of Major, having served as ( 1ef by the Executive Counols of the Guild charged to "seek applications from Catholic scientists and phys1oans and of Laboratory Service in several , OS· of the pros and cons of this positi~n. Catholics as widely as possible." The in honor of the memory of the l~te pitals here and in Europe. The decision to omit a statement stip chairman was Dr. Howard J, Chris John J. Larkin, Jr., M.D., the Guild From September 1946 until hi un ulating that "non-Catholics need not tian (pathologist at Carney Hospital, of St. Luke of Boston in 1950 es timely death three y_ears la~er, he ~as apply" is worthy of note when one re Dorchester) ; the other members were tablished a memorial grant-in-aid. I_t pathologist at St. Elizabeth s Ho~ ital, flects that Irish immigrants in this Dr, Joseph M . Foley (now chairman is the purpose of this bri~f communi Brighton Massachusetts, and Chi f of city a hundred years ago were dealt and professor, Department of N eu with in very arbitrary fashion! The cation to review the philosophy be. Staff at Holy Ghost Hospital in f .am rology, Western Reserve University, hind this award, to mention some _of bridge, Massachusetts. current poster-which · is sent out to Cleveland, Ohio), D r. William Mo all three local medical schools and to the problems attendant on i_t~ adm1_n On September 28, 1950, a tlblet loney ( director, Tufts Hematology more than one hundred hospitals, col istration, and to evaluate cnt1Cally its was dedicated in his honor at -foly Laboratory, Boston City Hospital) , leges, and laboratories in Eastern successes and failures over the past Ghost Hospital. On this occasion Dr. and Dr. Robert Spellman (urologist decade and a half. Massachusetts in the early Fall of each H . Edward MacMahon, Professr r of and visiting surgeon, St. Elizabeth's year-is reproduced in Figure I . I. DR. JOHN J. LARKIN, JR. Pathology at Tufts University S . _Df;I Hospital, Brighton) -:- all physician (1914-1949) . of Medicine, reviewed Dr. Lai ms Table I summarizes available data investigators of expenence. On August 26, 1949, . at . the age gleaned from the files of the various career as an administrator, diag,10,t1· The practi ce of presenting the . a of thirty-five, while vacattonu~g with Award Chairmen to the best of the cian, and investigator ( an~ibiotic and ward at the time of the Laetare Din his family, Dr. Larkin was acodental · present writer's detective ability. As cancer research) . In closing hi, re· ner was instituted to formalize and ly drowned, terminating _a ca~eer ~f marks, Dr. MacMahon lamente, the shown, the first (1951) recipient of great promise as a medical mvesti- the Larkin Award ( in the sum of lend appropriate dignity to the pro early demise of "a gifted teach<: r, a ject. More recently, the award has gator. . $500) was Dr. Alfred Donovan ( cur young man of great promise, a 1d a been given at the time of the annual Educated at St. Francis Xavier rently practicing in Wakefield, Mass.) loyal friend." Spring Festival Charity Dinner Dance, School in Roslindale, Mass., Boston who collaborated with Drs. Joseph M . In addition to numerous othe1 pro· College High School, and Boston Col Foley and William C. Moloney in sponsored by the Guil_d and grace~ by fessional societies, Dr. Larkin had · His Emin enc e, RtChard Cardmal lege-where he graduated mag11a .-um describing a zinc sulfate technigue for C~shing. laude in 1935-he went on t_o Ha~ taken an active interest in the Guild percipitating spinal fluid globulins. vard Medical School, completmg his of St. Luke. Neurologists are grateful for a modi Such was the stimulus generated by course of studies in 1939. II. THE AWARD fication of this technigue which has this group that in 1958 an all-time Following this, he was an inte_rn on The precise qualifications fo r the p~oved very useful in the differential 'high" of six . applicati~ns were. re the First (Tufts) Medical Serv!ce at Larkin Award were not clearly de· diagnosis of patients presenting with ceived for review. This committee Boston City Hospital ; then, resident fined until the Executive Council . of sy~dromes suggesting multiple scler served with distinction until 1960 physician at Westfiel~ State Sanat~r the Guild formulated the following osis. 'fhus, a figure of more than fif when Ors. Edward Mahoney, James ium· and finally res1dent 0 patholog1st criteria in November 1956: The award teen per cent (15 % ) gamma globu O 'Hare Francis Pomer, and Robert at New York Post-Graduate Hospital shall be given only to a _Catholic who lin in a spinal fluid with relatively Scully ~erved for one year as an in terim committee. through D ecember 1942. is a native of the Archd10cese of B 01· normal total protein is highly sug gestive of multiple sclerosis. In the fall of 1960, the Executive Council (Francis W. Drinan, M .D., _In 1954, three applications were re president) appointed the writer to t~e ceived and the award went to Mr. chairmanship of the Award Comm1t- MA'.Y, 1964 59 tee. The other six members appointed The award committee has enjo) ~d TABLE I, by the chairman who willingly agreed the whole-hearted cooperation of < 1r SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS FOR THE LARKJN AWARD (1951-1964) to serve and who have done so, cheer various Executive Councils and is m ,st fully and well, over the past · four grateful to the sponsors who hi ve TOTAL years are: Dr. Jane Desforges, Tufts agreed to supervise the work . of ' 1e APPLICA- YEAR TIONS RECIPIENT HOSPITAL OR SCHOOL PROJECT Medical School faculty affiliation, Bos successful recipients. We feel, the e "Precipitation of Cere fore, that the modest efforts of !1. e 1951 ( ?) Dr. Alfred Boston City ton City Hospital, whose field of in brospinal Fluid Globu award committees over the past 14 Donovan Hospital terest is hematology; Dr. James Gra lin by Zinc Sulfate" ham, Tufts faculty, St: Elizabeth's years have been worthwhile (Ta >le Hospital, pathology; Dr. Stephen II lists printed scientific articles wh ~h 1954 (3) Mr. Laszlo Varga Harvard Medical "An Ultracentrifugal Kuffier, Harvard faculty, neurophysi are a direct result of the Lar in (medical student) School Study of Protein-Poly ology; Dr. Eugene Laforet, Boston Award). Last year's recipient, D r. E. saccharide Interaction" University faculty, Massachusetts James Potchen, had an opportunity to 1955-7 (?) no award given Memorial Hospital, thoracic surgery; present his paper before members of Dr. Joseph O'Connor, Tufts faculty, the Guild and other interested pers, ns 1958 (6) Dr. Jean Crabbe Peter Bent "Mechanisms of Aldos Winchester Hospital, internal medi at the McElroy Commons of Bos :m Brigham Hospital terone Secretion" cine, and Dr. Cornelius Shea, Tufts College. This was suggested and 1r 1959 (3) Dr. Kenneth Boston City "Esterase Activity in faculty, Carney Hospital, general ranged by Dr. Eugene Laforet, a m m McPherson Hospital Leukocytes D emon surgery. ber of the award committee and ch. ir strated by the Use of After much deliberation, the ground man of the Guild's Lecture Ser es, Naphthol AS-D Chloro rules for making the award were modi with great success. acetate Substrate" fied as follows : With a plethora of governmc 1t "Amino Acid Metabo supported research monies ( reach g 1960 (4) Dr. A. H. Samy Peter Bent a) although the prime purpose is Brigham Hospital lism and Transport" to stimulate Catholics in original bio down even into the first two yr rn McLean Hospital "Chemical Maturation medical research, non-Catholics are not of medical school), it may well be 1961 (3) Dr. Joseph F. (Mass. General of Rat Brain with Spe excluded from applying; time to reappraise not our purpc ses Greaney but our stipulations in making fut rre Hospital) cial Attention to Mye b) the committee shall be free to awards. To be specific, we feel i .1at lin-Formation" judge each project submitted entirely perhaps we should solicit more in er on its individual merit; 1992 (5) Dr. John Ferrante Carney Hospital ''Manganese-Porphyrin est from premedical areas, such as in Red Blood Cells" c) the stipend is not intended to college students engaged in orig al purchase :a~ratorv StJl?Pli es or equip . research in biology or "life-scienc, s," 1963 (2) Dr. E. James Peter Bent "Studies on Methods of ment, but rather co iurnish some small preferably with some pertinence to Potchen Brigham Hospital Labelling Parathormone measure of financial security to the human ills or physiology. with Radioactive Amino recipient, who might otherwise be re In summary, we feel that aw2rds Acids" quired to take another job. of this type are worthy undertak; ngs 1964 Mr. John S. Hood Massachusetts "Intestinal Absorption d) case reports, analysis of clinical of such groups as Guilds of Cath-Jlic (pre-medical Institute of of Calcium in Health data, clinical evaluation of drugs, and Physicians. We encourage other Guilds student) Technology and Disease" reviews of the literature-unless as to consider our history and we 0ffer sociated with some creditable original to provide full measure of our own TABLE II. research-shall be excluded from con experience in initiat~ng any such 1,ro sideration. ject elsewhere. SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS DIRECnY ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE LARKIN AWARD 1. Donovan, A. (with Foley, J. M. and Moloney, W. C.) : Precipitation of cerebrospinal fluid globulin by zinc sulfate. J. Lab. & Clin. Med. 37:374-381 1951. 2. McPherson, K. (with Moloney, W. C. and Fliegelman, L.): Esterase activity in leukocytes demonstrated by the use of naphthol AS-D chloroacetate sub strate. f. Histochem. & Cytochem. 8:200-207 1960. 3. Potchen, E. J.: Isotopic labelling of the rat parathyroid as demonstrated by . autoradiography. f. Nuclear Med. 4:480-484 1963 . 60 LINACRE QUARTER LY . MAY, 1964 6i