Arthur Parker Hitchens photo in 1916, The son of William Smith Hitchens was born in Delmar in 1877.
Ethel Bennett Hitchens in 1916, his wife
From an article by Claude P Brown in 1950.
Arthur Parker Hitchens
was born in Delmar, Delaware, September 14, 1877,the son of
William Smith and Fannie Parker Hitchens. He attended Temple College
and was graduated from the
Medico-Chirurgical College, Philadelphia, in 1898.
His internship was spent at Samaritan Hospital, Philadelphia. At
various times he studied also at
the University of Pennsylvania; at St. Mary's Hospital, London,
under Sir Almroth, Wright; at Woods Hole, Massachusetts; at the Army
Medical School; and in France and Switzerland.
In 1901 Dr. Hitchens
joined the staff of the biological laboratories of the H. K. Mulford Company, Glenolden,
Pennsylvania. From 1905 to 1918, when he entered the Medical Corps
of the United States Army, he was director
of the laboratories.
He left the Army for a short
time after the First World War. -During this period he was active
in tuberculin research at the Hygienic Laboratories of
the Public Health Service, now the National Institutes of
Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
After accepting
appointment as a major in the Medical Corps
in 1920, he worked with Colonels F. Charles
Craig and Henry J. Nichols in Washington, teaching bacteriology
at the Army Medical
School. About the same time he completed
the basic and advanced training course of
the same school.
From 1924 to 1929 Dr. Hitchens
was in the Philippines. As a member
of the Army Medical Research Board he participated in a study,
under Colonel J. F. Siler, of dengue
fever. After the completion of that work
he became a technical adviser in
matters of public health to Governor
General Leonard Wood. Under General Wood's direction Dr. Hitchens organized
the School of Public Health and Preventive
Medicine in the University of the Philippines.
This was later supported
by the Rockefeller Foundation. Under
Governor General Henry L. Stimson,
Dr. Hitchens introduced the teaching of public
health into the schools.
While in the Philippines
he aided in combating an epidemic
of cholera. He also was president
of the Leprosy Research Board, visiting Culion and other
leprosariums.
On leaving
the Philippines he traveled in Japan,
China, Malay, Java, India, and Egypt.
His next
assignment was to take charge of the Corps
Area Laboratory at Fort Sheridan,
Illinois. From there he went to Walter
Reed General Hospital in 1934 and
to the Army Medical School in
1935. He became a lieutenant colonel in
1937.
In 1938 he went to the
University of Pennsylvania as an assistant professor of military
science and tactics. By permission of the Surgeon
General, he accepted in 1939 the
George S. Wharton professorship of public health and preventive
medicine in the university. Retirement from the
Army came in 1941, but he was immediately recalled
to active duty and continued in the service
until 1945. In that year the Wilmington,
Delaware, municipal administration invited him to become
commissioner of health, in which
capacity he served for three years.
Upon retirement as commissioner he was appointed
director of the Bureau of Laboratories of the
Pennsylvania State Board of Health.
In spite
of the fact that Army life entailed frequent changes of residence,Colonel
Hitchens was active in numerous
scientific and professional organizations.
During his
secretaryship in the Society of American
Bacteriologists he successfully completed negotiations
with the Williams and Wilkins Company of Baltimore for
the publication of the JOuRNAL OF BACTERIOLOGY,
official organ of the society.
Later he was the society's vice-president
and president. Colonel Hitchens
interested Williams and Wilkins in publishing
D. H. Bergey's Manual
of Determinative Bacteriology. After
Dr. Bergey's death he became one of
the three members of the editorial board supervising the later editions of the Manual.
For some years Colonel
Hitchens was editor of Abstracts of
Bacteriology; later he became
a member of the editorial board of Biological Abstracts.
In addition to his editorial
duties he found time to write many scientific
papers on
bacteriology,
immunology, and public health.
Colonel Hitchens was a
fellow of the American Public Health
Association and served as a councilor.
On joining this association in 1907,
he became active in its Laboratory Section. For
some years he was chairman of the
Committee on
Co-ordination of
Standard Laboratory Methods. Those who were associated
with him attributed the accomplishments
of his committee to his
ability to get people to work together
harmoniously. Other
organizations of which Colonel Hitchens was a member
or a fellow were the Philadelphia
College of Physicians (1908), the American Medical Association,
the Philadelphia County Medical
Society, the American College of Physicians, the American
Association of Immunologists (a charter
member), the Philadelphia Board of Health
(1940-1944), the Philadelphia Council of Social Agencies, the Pennsylvania
Public Health Association (of which he was
at one time president), the Delaware Public Health Association (which
he served as both vice-president and president),
the Philadelphia Council of Defense,
the Babies Hospital, and the Board
of Directors of the Pennsylvania Tuberculosis
Society.
In his work,
the improvement of laboratory procedures was
his constant aim. One of his many contributions
was the preparation and
demonstration of the use of semisolid
agar (0.1 per cent)
media for the growth of anaerobic
bacteria.
His
technical skill was highly
developed. He became adept in designing
and making glass syringes, pipettes, and
other laboratory apparatus, among which was his syringe
for inoculating animals with standard doses of
antitoxins. He invented a fly trap
to be inserted in windows,
and also one to be placed
over vessels containing fly-attracting refuse
Bacterial vaccines
were undergoing rapid development about
the time he became director of the Mulford laboratories. After his trip
to London for study under Sir Almroth Wright, he instituted research
in the bacteriology of infectious
diseases. The
organisms isolated during these studies were later
used in the preparation of vaccines (bacterins).
The development of
antibacterial serums followed much the same pattern, i.e.,
antistreptococcic serum was produced by inoculating
horses with streptococci isolated from scarlet fever,
erysipelas, and the respiratory tract. Diphtheria,
tetanus, and
BaciUus welchii antitoxins, antimeningococcal serum, and tuberculins
were some of the biological products prepared under
his supervision. A department for animal biologics
was also developed.
His hobby,
when he could steal a little time from his many activities,
was the history of bacteriology and public health. His library
contained numerous books on these
subjects.
He married Ethel M. Bennett
in 1906. They had two foster
children, John and Ethel.
The Council of the
Laboratory Section of the American Public Health Association
nominated Colonel Hitchens for the Sedgwick Memorial
Medal just before his death. One of
his friends and colleagues in public health work has
written me,"There will be no
one to fill the unique place he occupied in our professional
field."
CLAUDE P. BROWN
1950
