Journal : Journal of nervous and mental disease ; vol. xvi.
S.l., s.n., 1889.
Description : 115-129 p. ; ill.: 3 phot. in-text ; 23.7 cm.
Photograph : 3 rough photoengravings in the text.
Subject : Pons — Gliomas.
Notes :
Dr. Mary Jacobi was the daughter of the publisher, George Palmer Putnam (1814-1872). In 1873 she married Abraham Jacobi (1830-1919), the first American specialist in pediatrics and founder of the first pediatric clinic (New York City). Even with these influential family connections she was forced to militate against gender barriers to the education and institutional privileges enjoyed by her less gifted male peers.
Jacobi's writings on diseases of the brain and gliomatous tumors of the brainstem were compiled in "Essays on hysteria, brain-tumor, and some other cases of nervous disease" (1888), an authoritative work that remained a resource for Osler and others for several decades. The strength of her character and her dedication to scientific discipline is best exemplified by a final paper, published posthumously and titled, "Description of the Early Symptoms of the Meningeal Tumor Compressing the Cerebellum. From Which the Writer Died. Written by Herself" (insert existential exclamation marks here). Osler was the first presenter at a memorial service for Jacobi, lamenting that she could have been the Tortula of her generation.
