796 ARTHUR TRACY CABOT. 



Henry J. Bigelow, who made him his heir, as it were, in Htholapaxy, 

 and thus led to Dr. Cabot's becoming the leader in genito-urinary 

 surgery that he was, admitted to be such far and wide. 



As evidence of his thoroughness and of the soundness of his judg- 

 ment it may be mentioned that in his paper on "Rupture of the 

 Bladder," 1891, and in another on "Rupture of the Urethra," 1896, 

 he laid down rules of procedure which stand unchanged today. 



Here, as well as elsewhere, may be mentioned that about 1886, 

 realizing the importance of immediate pathological examination of 

 many surgical cases while under operation in order to determine the 

 scope and nature of the necessary operation, he and his brother 

 Samuel established a fund of $10,000, known as the "Samuel Cabot 

 Fund for Pathological Research," in memory of their father. The 

 interest on this fund is used for paying a pathologist to be on hand 

 operating days and making such examinations as the surgeons require. 

 If not the first, it was surely an early effort to make thorough patholog- 

 ical study go hand in hand with the surgical operation. Dr. Cabot 

 was also the prime mover in starting the Clinico-Pathological Labora- 

 tory, was a leader in raising the necessary funds and planning the build- 

 ing. He became Librarian to the Hospital, and evolved order from 

 chaos in the book and case records, both now thoroughly available. 



He was President of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1905 and 

 1906. In his visitations to the District Societies he did yeoman service 

 in stirring up our profession to more actively interesting itself in the 

 campaign against tuberculosis. It was probably this leadership which 

 induced Governor Guild in 1907 to appoint him a Trustee of the Massa- 

 chusetts State Hospitals for Consumptives, and at the first meeting 

 of the Trustees, in September of that year, he was elected Chairman. 

 The amount and quality of his work in this capacity deserves fullness 

 of treatment, which, it is to be hoped, it will receive, but which it is 

 impossible to give here. In his automobile he traversed the State to 

 select suitable sites for the three hospitals for one hundred and fifty 

 patients each. The North Reading Hospital was opened in the fall 

 of 1908, those of Lakeville and Westfield early in 1909. The appro- 

 priation of $300,000 was not exceeded, and the requirements were 

 full}- met at a cost of $700 a bed as against nearly $2000 a bed for the 

 Boston Consumptives Hospital at IMattapan. The Rutland Hospital 

 was then placed under the Trustees. Only those on the inside fully 

 know how much of the conspicuous success of this new departure was 

 due to the compelling wisdom and unremitting labor of Dr. Cabot. 

 In this, as in all his other work, its quality was only matched by his 



