Respiration Lab

Brigham and Women's Hospital collection, Center for the History of Medicine in the Francis A. Countway Library, Harvard University

The Respiration Lab at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, circa 1914

“Dr. Walter Boothby, originally the official anesthetist of the hospital, after a period of study in Haldane’s laboratory in Oxford, occupied himself here for the first several years with studies of respiration, organized a special laboratory for the purpose, introduced into the hospital the routine use of metabolism studies, and made valuable contributions to this important subject. On his departure with his assistant, Miss Sandiford, to take a similar position at the Mayo Clinic, the laboratory has been transferred temporarily to the direction of Dr. Peabody of the medical service, and continues to be under the charge of Miss Tompkins, who received her training in the Carnegie Nutrition Laboratory under Dr. Benedict.” —Quoted from the Sixth Annual Report of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital for the Year 1919