John Farquhar Fulton
American neurophysiologist and historian of science (1899–1960)
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Early life and education
John Farquhar Fulton was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, as the youngest of six children to Edith Stanley Wheaton and John Farquhar Fulton, an ophthalmologist who helped found the University of Minnesota. He studied at the University of Minnesota from 1917 to 1918 and then transferred to Harvard University, receiving a B.S. in 1921. Starting in 1921, he studied neurophysiology at Magdalen College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a B.A. with first class honors in 1923. Then, as a Christopher Welch Scholar at Magdalen College, he received an M.A. and a D.Phil. in 1925. He then received an M.D. from Harvard in 1927. After his time at Harvard, he focused his studies on neurosurgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston under Harvey Cushing. He later returned to Oxford to receive a D.Sc. in 1941 and D.Litt. in 1957. He was hospitalized for diabetes mellitus in 1950 and for cardiac difficulties in 1957. He died at the age of 60 due to heart failure.
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Leadership
Fulton taught as a demonstrator in physiology for two years at Oxford University starting in 1923. He taught briefly at the Magdalen College School of Medicine from 1928 to 1929, then transferred to Yale University, becoming the youngest Sterling Professor of Physiology.
His leadership extended outside the classroom. His positions included editor for the Journal of Neurophysiology; creator of the Yale Aeromedical Research Unit in 1940; chairman of the Subcommittee on Historical Records of the National Research Council, member of the Committee on Aviation Medicine; trustee for the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey in 1942; president of the History of Science Society from 1947 to 1950; first chairman of the Yale Department of History and Medicine in 1951, along with Harvey Williams Cushing and Arnold Klebs, and head of the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences from 1951 to 1960.
Contributions
History of science
Fulton strongly encouraged the addition of humanities into the scientific fields by placing the history of sciences into general education. His passion for this topic landed him the role of president of the History of Science Society from 1947 to 1950. He aided in the founding of institutions such as the Medical Historical Library at Yale (1941), the Logan Clendening Lectures in the History of Medicine at the University of Kansas in 1950, the Yale Department of History of Medicine (with Harvey Williams Cushing and Arnold Klebs in 1951), and the Yale Department of the History of Science and Medicine in 1959. Madeline Stanton, who was Librarian of the Historical Collections at the Medical Historical Library at Yale, was also a frequent co-author with Fulton on works regarding history of science and organization of sources on the same topic.
During his time as president of the History of Science Society, he was a member of the editorial board of its historical journal Isis and helped stabilize it so it could grow in popularity. He also organized meetings in 1947 for the Committee on the History of Science in General Education, which created a project to collect materials to use in the teaching of history of science.
He argued for the English translation of historical texts that traced the history of the sciences. He had a hobby as an avid book collector, and he donated much of his collection to the Yale Medical Historical Library. He also added his own work to these collections. He wrote biographies for Harvey Cushing, Benjamin Silliman, Robert Boyle, Girolamo Fracastoro, Richard Lower, John Mayow, Kenelm Digby, and Joseph Priestley. Fulton also discovered early publications of Ambroise Paré, a surgeon who lived in the 16th century.
Primate physiology
Fulton created the first primate research laboratory in the United States. Through the 1930s, he and other scientists did comparative studies on functional localization in the cerebral cortex. They found that lesioning the prefrontal cortex created calming effects in the monkeys. Fulton proposed, but did not implement, the idea of using this technique on humans to relieve mental diseases. Fulton's team's findings influenced Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz, who developed the medical practice of the frontal lobotomy in humans and who won the Nobel Prize for his work in 1949.
Fulton's work in the field of neurophysiology brought about the creation of the Journal of Neurophysiology in 1938.
World War II
The impact of Fulton's studies in neurophysiology extended to the military during World War II. Fulton created the Yale Aero-Medical Research Unit, which lasted from 1940 to 1951. It made great progress in the fields of aviation medicine as well as high-altitude flying, which caused Fulton to be awarded various honors (below).