University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine - Scope Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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Zin jlillzmuriam PROFESSOR GEORGE ARTHUR PIERSOL By Dr. Jolm C. Hcisler Professor George Arthur Picrsol died on August 7, 1924, after an illness which began in January, 19:31. The so11 of Dr. Jeremiah Morris Piersol and Dr. Mina Ellinger Piersol, he was born in Philadelphia in 1856. Dr. Piersol was graduated from the Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania with the degree of Civil Engineer in 187-1 and from the Medical School, of the University of Pennsylvania, in 1877. After receiving his medical degree, he specialized in Ophthalmology, practicising this branch of medicine for several years. His early inclination, however, toward anatomical research was evinced by his choice of the minute anatomy of the cornea as the subject of his graduation thesis, a paper which evoked the hearty commendation and aroused the interest of Joseph Leidy, then professor of anatomy in the University Medical School. In pursuit of this inclination, he spent several years in graduate work at the Universities of Berlin, Wurzburg and Vienna. Beginning the teaching of histology in the Medical School of the University as Assistant Demonstrator, in 1877, Dr. Piersol was appointed Demonstrator of His- tology in 1882 and Professor of Histology and Embryology in 1890. Upon the death of Professor Joseph Lcidy in 1891, he was made Professor of Anatomy, his in- cumbency continuing until his retirement in 19722, when he was made Emeritus Proiessor. 22

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FACULTY ,

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Dr. Piersol received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from Pennsyl- vania College in 1905 and also from the University of Pennsylvania in 1922. He was president of the American Association of Anatomists, 1910 to 1911. Among the scientific societies in which Dr. Piersol held membership, may be mentioned the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Anatomists, the American Philosophical Society, the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences and the American Medical Association. ln addition to contributing numerous papers to scientific journals on subjects relating to anatomy, histology and embryology-such as, contributions to the histology of the Harderian gland, the development of the visceral arches and clefts and their derivatives in mammals, the structure of spermatozoa, the obliteration of the vermiform appendix, et cctera-Dr. Piersol published his text-book of Normal Histologyu in 1893, the notable success of which is indicated by the fact that the book has gone through twelve editions, alld, in 1907, his Human Ana- tomy, now in its eighth edition. lflis translation ot' Emil Villiger's Brain and Spinal Cordl' was published in 1912. With the retirement of Dr. Piersol, the School of Medicine of the University lost an able teacher and an infiucntial factor in the educational life of the institution. Though not of an aggressive disposition and though by taste and inclination opposed to controversy, he nevertheless left his impress upon medical education. Thus. he was one of the pioneers in America in emphasizing the important relation of embryology to the study of human anatomy. Prior to his incumbency of the chair of anatomy, embryology had been regarded as a subject of rather abstract interest to the students of medicine, to be engaged in or to be ignored, according to individual taste and preference. Dr. Piersol, however, by the teaching of the facts of development in intimate connection with those of structure and form- correlating the two subjects in such manner as to bring out the relation between the facts of embryology and the peculiarities of adult structure-emphasized and, one may say, popularized the importance of a knowledge of the salient features of embryology not only to the proper understanding of human anatomy, but also to the profitable study of clinical medicine and surgery. During the last twenty- five years many apparent vagaries of anatomy, such as the asymmetry of the veins and arteries of the trunk, the anomalies of these structures as well as of many others, the significance of certain parts of the brain, such as the choroid plexuses, the ventricles, the foruix and the fibre-tracts have been rendered more intelligible and therefore more interesting to the student by bringing to his attention the respective modes of development of these structures. Not only as an efficient and inspiring teacher do the former students of Dr. Piersol hold him in grateful remembrance and high respect, but as the kindly and courteous gentleman, whose sympathetic interest and friendly help could always be counted upon, will his memory be enshrined in the hearts of those whom he taught. Of unfailing urbanity and of gentle dignity of manner, tactful, gracious. sincere, broadly cultured, he combined in a rare degree those qualities that one associates with the personality of the true gentleman. 23