Thomas Dwight


Thomas Dwight was an American physician, anatomist and teacher.

Early life

Thomas Dwight was born on October 13, 1843, in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was also named Thomas Dwight, part of the New England Dwight family. His mother was Mary Collins Warren, whose father John Collins Warren, and grandfather John Warren were both surgeons.
Dwight joined the Catholic Church in 1856, and graduated from the Harvard Medical School in 1867. He then studied abroad.

Career

Dwight was instructor in comparative anatomy at Harvard College, from 1872 to 1873. Hee also lectured at Bowdoin College. He succeeded Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. as Parkman professor of anatomy at Harvard Medical School in 1883.
In the Warren Museum of Anatomy at Harvard, Dwight arranged a section of osteology, considered one of the best in existence, and he had an international reputation as an anatomist.
He served as the third president of the Association of American Anatomists from 1894-1895.
Among his writings are: "Frozen Sections of a Child" ; "Clinical Atlas of Variations of the Bones of the Hands and Feet" ; "Thoughts of a Catholic Anatomist", a valuable work of Christian apologetics.

Personal life

Dwight died September 8, 1911, in Nahant, Massachusetts, at age 68.

Selected works

  • . Boston: H.O. Houghton & Company, 1876.
  • . New York: William Wood & Company, 1881.Commonplaces of History. Boston: Review Pub. Co., 1900.
  • Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1907.The Church and Science. Boston: Review Pub. Co., 1908.
  • London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1911.
  • Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1923.

Articles

Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 13, 1877–1878.The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. XI, 1886.The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. XII, 1887.The American Naturalist, Vol. 21, No. 7, Jul., 1887.
  • "Anatomy of the Contortionist," Scribner's, April 1889.
  • "What Is Right-Handedness?," Scribner's, April 1891.Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 31, No. 140, 1893.Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 28, 1892–1893.
  • "Reminiscences of Dr. Holmes, as Professor of Anatomy," Scribner's, January 1895.The American Naturalist, Vol. 29, No. 338, 1895.Science, New Series, Vol. 4, No. 83, 1896.
  • "Anatomy Laws versus Body Snatching," The Forum, December 1896.Science, New Series, Vol. 21, No. 536, 1905.