[Research notes on clinical biochemistry], 1905-1910.

1 vol. (205 p.); 27 cm.

English

In English.

Gift of the Connecticut Historical Society Museum and Library, Hartford, Connecticut, 2012.

Open for research.

Helen Baldwin, physician in New York City, was born in Canterbury, Connecticut, the daughter of Dr. Elijah Baldwin and Sarah H. (Matthewson) Baldwin. She received a B.A. from Wellesley College in 1888 where she studied physics and chemistry. In 1892, she obtained an M.D. from Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary. After a residency at City Hospital, Philadelphia, and postgraduate work at Johns Hopkins, she returned to New York. In 1896, she became a member of the staff of the New York Infimary for Women and Children, a hospital managed by women physicians, for forty years, rising to head of the department of medicine, and then consulting physician. At the same time she carried on a private practice and worked from 1895 to 1912 in the private laboratory of Dr. Christian A. Herter, a pioneer American biochemist who was independently wealthy. Baldwin published several articles in medical and biochemical journals.

This notebook on Baldwin's research in clinical biochemistry was compiled during the period that she was working in Dr. Christian Herter's laboratory. The bulk of the research case studies were an attempt to identify negative effects of anesthesia in surgery, especially acetonuria (ketonuria). The cases provide basic information on individual surgical operations, in particular the chemical composition and amount of the anesthetic used. For each patient, Baldwin entered the results of chemical tests of the urine twelve hours before and twelve hours after the operation. Several other cases related to acetonuria in pregnancy or to the influence of milk on the formation of phenol. There were also examinations of cultures from feces of patients, and some experiments on animals. The patients were probably not her own patients. Several loose short notes were inserted in the notebook.

July 12, 2012

Laboratory notebooks.