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THE ADVENTUROUS GOLDBERGER* by R THE ADVENTUROUS GOLDBERGER* By R. P. PARSONS, M.D. WASHINGTON, D.C. UST how long a man must be perhaps in a greater state of confusion dead before he can be properly in 1913 than it was in 1735, when considered a historical figure, Casal first described it and pro- and thus be discussed by his- pounded his ideas as to its etiology. torians who wish to observe the conGoldberger- ’s solution of the problem ventionsJ of their guild, I am a little put an end to this confusion. His uncertain. contributions form a solid basis for Joseph Goldberger died less than the prevention and cure of this disease three years ago. But many of those and for the further study of other who are familiar with his work and diseases associated with faulty diets. knew his personality have expressed The influence of his work should be as their confidence that his name will far reaching and as permanent and be as well or better known three important as were the influences of centuries hence as it was three years the work of Jenner and Pasteur. ago. I have mentioned pellagra only The permanence and prominence for the purpose of estimating Gold- of a man’s name in history are deter- berger’s historical position. The pella- mined largely by such factors as the gra investigations were quite recent, permanence and prominence of his having occupied the last fifteen years work; that is, the number of years of Goldberger’s life, and the world is his ideas will influence the lives and rather generally, if vaguely, aware thoughts of persons in the generations that a man named Goldberger had that succeed him; the number of something to do with a disease called persons affected by his work and the pellagra. It will therefore be more extent to which they are affected. truly historical and perhaps more If a man solves a problem, the great- interesting to discuss some of Gold- ness that eventually comes to him berger’s earlier and less generally will depend upon the importance known work and something of the of the problem to the human race, personal side of the man. and the amount of time and effort Goldberger was a man of many expended (unsuccessfully) on that paradoxes. Outwardly he was cold as problem by his predecessors. steel; a man of limitless patience; While these criteria hold, Gold- incapable of any human emotions; berger’s qualifications for a permanent some thought him an extreme cynic and high position in history should not that he was ever known to hold remain undisputed. The cause of in derision or contempt the frailties pellagra was the puzzle of two cen- of the human mind and soul or the turies and the disease affected count- follies of human institutions, but less thousands of persons. Our knowl- that he was thought to be utterly edge of the nature of this disease was lacking in faith—and even any inter- * Read before the American Association of History of Medicine, Atlantic City, May 4, 1931. est—in humanity. That was the outer and we know what we’re talking Goldberger. It was not a conscious about or you may be dead certain pose. It was simply the front that we wouldn’t be talking.’’ people saw, or thought they saw. The inner Goldberger was the real Goldberger, the Goldberger that his intimates knew so well. This inner fellow was the very intensely human Goldberger. The man was precisely a ten-year old boy, sharing all the emotions, showing all the impulses, feeling all the ecstatic joy or crushing disappointment that a normal boy can feel, sharing the boy’s idealism, his imagination, his faith, his sense of romance, his optimism, his petty worries, his passions, his diffidence, and most of all, his craving for adven- ture. This picture becomes more strange when we add to the boyish emotionalism and idealism an intel- lect, a mental genius that never failed to astound those who were in a position to observe its technique and its effectiveness. Goldberger with a new problem Goldberger spent his life in the was emotionally the boy with a new quest and enjoyment of adventure. pair of skates and intellectually Sher- Everything he saw suggested mys- lock Holmes with a new murder teries to be solved or dragons to be mystery. There was always the boy’s slain. impetuosity with the restraint of the He was born in 1874, on a peasant man’s mind. The man’s mind saying tenant farm near Giralt, (then) Hun- to the boy, “now keep your shirt gary (now Czecho Slovakia), just on; don’t get excited; I can see already south of the Carpathian Mountains. that this path leads nowhere; neither In his infancy he heard the adventur- does that one, nor that one; there ous tales of America; tales that came can be only one logical tack to take by way of letters from former folk at this point; this path must lead to of the neighborhood who were getting the light; when you have seen it, on in the New World and substanti- you can prove the truth of it backward ating the stories of their success by and forward and a hundred other sending what seemed huge sums to ways. Then if you think it will give be used in transporting the remaining you any satisfaction, go ahead and portions of their families to America. announce it. Lots of people won’t Two of Goldberger’s half-brothers believe you, at least not at first, were then carrying their packs of but that’s neither here nor there; wares on their backs and peddling we have seen what we have seen, in the countryside around Cincinnati. They were sending money as well as ture—and mathematics, his favorite adventurous accounts. subject in school. He progressed with In 1881, when Goldberger was ease and distinction in this school, seven, came the great adventure of standing fifth in a class of six hundred the long voyage of the large Gold- at the end of the second year. berger family to New York, made The impressionable boy of eighteen possible by the remittances of the chanced to attend the Harvey lecture, half-brothers and the courage of the given in 1892 by Austin Flint, Jr., at parents in converting all their re- the (then) Bellevue Hospital Medical sources into cash and burning all College. That settled the engineer- their bridges for the venture. ing business. He immediately trans- The father, Samuel, was something ferred his interests to medicine and of a dreamer and religious mystic, entered the Bellevue Hospital school. but the mother, Sarah (Guttman), In 1895 he graduated number two while also very orthodox in views in his class and stood number one and practice, had some hard-headed in the examinations for internship business sense. The eight children appointment at Bellevue. were immediately placed in an East At Bellevue he was known chiefly Side public school; Samuel peddled as a hater of routine and a master in the streets of the Bowery and of case history writing. Routine with- Sarah did some scheming. Before out problems he of course found irk- long they had a grocery store that some. To him a case was a problem, catered to all creeds and races of an exciting mystery that must be the Pitt Street neighborhood on the solved, not a piece of routine. His lower East Side; it did a good business case histories were models of per- in sauerkraut and ham and spaghetti fection, held up as such by the as well as in matzoth and kosher visiting staff members for the other products. Joseph and his brothers interns. Those case histories reflected were the delivery boys. Joseph was their author’s grasp of the clinical slow on the deliveries. He had a problem and his ability to present book under his coat. He would read in a few plain words the essential it during the errands. He lived in data that pointed out the road to his books. School books, story books— the diagnosis. Alger, Optic, Cooper, tales of Ameri- During the first fifteen years that can frontier days. He spent every followed his term at Bellevue he available moment with these books; was profoundly influenced, often in- he haunted the free libraries and spired, by a series of men with whom second-hand book stalls. he became associated, just as later His greatest reverence was for he himself became the inspirer of his school teachers; they symbolized the younger research men who came knowledge, power, authority, guides to work with him. to ways of life, guides to values in At Wilkes Barre, where he engaged life. in private practice for two years, At sixteen he entered the course he came under the influence of Pro- of civil engineering at the New York fessor William Dean, a local professor City College. The career of a civil of chemistry. Two year’s conversation engineer would provide travel, adven- with this man persuaded him that private practice was not his field. his wildest boyish expectations. He It was drab. The Wilkes Barre period hunted down cases in various parts gave good promise of financial success of Mexico, Porto Rico and our South- in practice but that meant nothing to ern States. He attained a masterly him. W hat good was money without knowledge of mosquito life; he got adventure? There never was to be a one very “close-up” view of yellow day when he was entirely free from fever by nearly dying of it in Mexico.
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