Thomas Addis (1881–1949): Mixing patients, rats, and politics

Abstract

In the early decades of the twentieth century, with the threat of epidemic infectious diseases already in decline, attention shifted to the chronic maladies: hypertension, atherosclerosis, obesity, cancer, diabetes—and nephritis, or Bright's disease. New chemical methods devised by Otto Folin (1867–1934) at Harvard and Donald D. Van Slyke (1883–1971) at the Rockefeller Institute Hospital empowered the investigation of renal and metabolic disorders. Folin's colorimetric system provided rapid measurement of creatinine, urea, and uric acid, while Van Slyke's gasometric analyses allowed quantification of urea and total carbon dioxide. Also in the first decades of the twentieth century, the reform of medical schools provided new opportunities for academic medical careers. The stronger and ambitious schools embraced the ideology of research, and sought full-time faculty members capable of good work in the laboratory. In these contexts, we will examine the life and work of Thomas Addis (1881–1949), whose career in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine in California was fashioned almost entirely from a lifelong study of kidney disease. A brilliant investigator and colorful human being, Addis was probably the first American to become so fully identified as an authority in what only later became known as nephrology. The author has uncovered many letters from Addis in various archival collections, so some of his own words will help tell his story.