Уильям Генри Велч: Америкалық дәрігер және медицинаның қаймақ қайнағы

American physician (1850–1934)

William Henry Welch (April 8, 1850 – April 30, 1934) was an American physician, pathologist, bacteriologist, and medical school administrator. He was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was the first dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and was also the founder of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, the first school of public health in the country. Welch was more known for his cogent summations of current scientific work, than his own scientific research. The Johns Hopkins medical school library is also named after Welch. In his lifetime, he was called the "Dean of American Medicine" and received various awards and honors throughout his lifetime and posthumously. William H. Welch was educated at Norfolk Academy and the Winchester Institute, a boarding school. His father and a grandfather and four of his uncles were all physicians. William Henry entered Yale University in 1866, where he studied Greek and classics. Initially, Welch was not interested in becoming a physician; his primary ambition was to teach the Greek language. Welch remained a lifelong bachelor. He was the uncle of Senator Frederic C. Walcott.

After a short period of teaching high school students in Norwich, New York, Welch went to study medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, in Manhattan. In 1875, he received his MD. From 1876 to 1877, he studied at several German laboratories to work with, among others, Julius Cohnheim. This experience abroad prompted Welch to model his plans for a new medical institute on the Institute of the History of Medicine at the University of Leipzig. The new institute also built on the already existing Johns Hopkins Hospital Historical Club (est. 1890), of which Welch had been a co founder. Welch is also the founding editor in chief of the American Journal of Epidemiology. Graduates of Welch's training programs were highly coveted as academic physicians. Medical schools and institutes across the country vied for Welch's former students and graduate scientists to fill top posts. He also was president of the American Medical Association, the Association of American Physicians, the History of Science Society, the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons, the Society of American Bacteriologists, and the Maryland State Board of Health. Welch was a founding editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Welch served in the U. S. Army Medical Corps during World War I, and played a major role in the response to the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. He remained in the Reserve Corps for three years thereafter, attaining the rank of brigadier general (O7). For his service during the war, Welch received the Distinguished Service Medal.

Welch died on April 30, 1934, at the age of 84, of prostatic adenocarcinoma at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Welch was awarded the first ever gold headed cane of the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists. Welch was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1896. Welch was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1897. Welch was awarded the Royal Order of the Crown of Prussia in 1911. In 1927, Welch received the Kober Medal from the American Association of Physicians. In 1931, Welch received the Harben Medal from the Royal Institute of Public Health for his professorship in the history of medicine. Welch Road, in the vicinity of Stanford University Medical Center in Stanford, California, is named in his honor.