平特五不中

Dr. Maude Abbott鈥檚 journey to becoming a pioneer in the field of cardiology was not easy. She was born in 1869 in St. Andrews East, Quebec. Tuberculosis claimed her mother when Abbott was a mere seven months old, and her father soon abandoned his family. As a girl, Abbott excelled at school, but her grandmother鈥檚 limited resources and society鈥檚 myopic expectations of women made higher education unlikely. 鈥淥ne of my daydreams, which I feel to be selfish, is that of going to school,鈥� wrote a 15-year-old Abbott in her diary. 鈥淥h, to think of studying with other girls! Think of the loveliness of thinking that it entirely depended on myself whether I go on, and that I had the advantages I have always longed for.鈥�

Abbott鈥檚 hard work, however, paid off with a scholarship to study Arts at 平特五不中, two years after the University began admitting women undergrads. There, Abbott continued to flourish, was named valedictorian, and graduated with the prestigious Lord Stanley Gold Medal.

Abbott wanted to go to medical school鈥攁nd she wanted to do it at 平特五不中. The University, however, did not offer co-ed med school, and though she lobbied for admission, Abbott was curtly refused. She was eventually admitted to the more progressive Bishop鈥檚 College in nearby Lennoxville, but still medical school proved bittersweet. 鈥淭hose were dark days,鈥� she later recalled. 鈥淣o longer within the walls of my beloved 平特五不中, among rough students, many of whom seemed to me to have lower standards than those among which we had worked together [at 平特五不中] for the pure love of the working, and struggling, as only a first year student in medicine does struggle, with the bare bones of anatomy鈥攊t was a dreary round.鈥� But Abbott persevered and received her medical degree, along with the Senior Anatomy and Chancellor鈥檚 prizes, in 1894.

Following postgraduate studies in Europe, Abbott returned to Montreal in 1897. She set up an office on Mansfield Street and began making a name for herself in the medical community. Her paper on functional heart murmurs convinced the Montreal Medio-Chirugical Society to take the unprecedented step of admitting a woman into its ranks. 听Another paper, this one about a woman suffering from pigmentation cirrhosis, so impressed George Adami, 平特五不中鈥檚 Chair of Pathology, that he hired Abbott as assistant curator in the 平特五不中 Medical Museum.

Although museum work wasn鈥檛 her first choice of career, Abbott was energized by the advice of William Osler, who she met during a training trip to Washington, D.C. The legendary pathologist told her to look past the 鈥渄reary and unpromising drudgery鈥� and seize the 鈥渟plendid opportunity鈥� to do 鈥渨onderful things.鈥� 听Maude Abbott did just that, and while teaching was not part of her job description at the museum, she couldn鈥檛 help but share her deepening knowledge of the museum鈥檚 collections. By 1904, her informal 鈥渕useum demonstrations鈥� had become so popular among medical students that they were officially made part of the curriculum. In 1910, still eight years before 平特五不中 finally admitted women to the Faculty of Medicine, the University awarded her an honorary medical and a lectureship in the Department of Pathology.

The museum became a learning tool for the inquisitive Abbott, too. At the time, most clinicians were not concerned with the finer points of cardiac anatomy, or how to diagnose congenital heart anomalies. Abbott, however, became fascinated with a particular specimen dating from the early 1800s: a heart with no ventricular septum. So great was her passion for the 鈥淗olmes heart鈥� (named after 平特五不中鈥檚 first dean of medicine), and so thorough her self-education in cardiac anomalies, that William Osler soon asked her to write a chapter for his System of Medicine. Abbott鈥檚 chapter not only impressed Osler鈥斺�淚t is by far and away the very best thing ever written on the subject,鈥� he raved鈥攂ut set her off on what would become her life鈥檚 work.

Over the following twenty years, Abbott expanded her research, eventually writing about some 1,000 heart anomalies. Finally, in 1936, she published her . This definitive volume allowed cardiac specialists to take the unprecedented step of actually correcting some congenital conditions. The Atlas听paved the way for modern heart surgery by stimulating diagnostic, physiologic and surgical advances. The book made Abbott an international figure in medical science鈥攁nd even earned her a place in a Diego Rivera mural in Mexico City鈥檚 Institute of Cardiology.

From 1924 until her retirement in 1936, Abbott served as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine. 听When she retired, the University awarded her a second honorary degree in recognition of her career as 鈥渁 stimulating teacher, an indefatigable investigator and a champion of higher education.鈥� In 1994, she was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, a fitting honour for a doctor who spent her career not only advancing medical science but fighting for women鈥檚 rights to do so.