Homer Gage, MD: Envisioning the Mass Med Society with a Journal

Patricia Giunta, MD

When Hhomer Gage left worcester to begin his medical training, the surgical field was in a period of rapid and revolutionary change. In 1846, Worcester County dentist Willian Morton held the first public demonstration of surgical anesthesia at the Ether Dome, ushering in an era of radical new procedures and expanding the boundaries of surgical intervention. In the late 1800s, while Gage was training in Boston, Joseph Lister applied Pasteur’s germ theory to patient care, proposing a controversial antiseptic technique that would counter the high mortality rates that plagued surgery. Emboldened by these breakthroughs, surgeons experimented with increasingly more invasive methods and intervened surgically earlier in the course of disease.

In the annual oration to the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1913, Dr. Gage, then the president of the Worcester District Medical Society, reflected on this turbulent period of progress and offered an opposing perspective. Rather than taking these advances as carte blanche for experimentation, surgeons must remember “the only justification for surgical intervention: [...]the relief of suffering, with as little danger, distress and mutilation as possible.” (1) He emphasized the need for standardized training of surgeons and professional guidelines, noting their absence as one crucial factor enabling the radical procedures gaining popularity. This methodical and thoughtful approach reflects Homer Gage’s broader legacy. After Dr. Gage completed his education at Massachusetts General Hospital, one staff physician praised his talents by noting that “there was not a surgeon in Massachusetts, Boston not excepted, who could give [him] points.” (2) Although he undoubtedly possessed the intellect and resources to join the ranks of the Boston elite, Gage chose to return to Worcester and devote his life to community service and the advancement of the medical profession.

Dr. Gage’s vision was central to the establishment of what is now the New England Journal of Medicine. At the turn of the century, the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal operated independently as the only weekly journal in New England. Although the Massachusetts Medical Society maintained a small quarterly newsletter, it lacked the resources to publish its own periodical and could not buy the Journal for fellows without raising annual dues. Several years later, new cost estimates gave the Society an opportunity to expand to a more robust monthly publication. Recognizing the competition this would no doubt create, Homer Gage proposed a partnership: rather than fund their own publication, the Society would buy into the Journal, securing their members a weekly copy and allowing them to publish at a more professional level. On July 1, 1914, the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal published its first issue as the official publication of the Massachusetts Medical Society.

Despite this partnership, the Journal suffered from poor management; although an “Advisory Committee” of editors – among them Dr. Gage – was created, they were rarely involved in decision making and the actual editors lacked discipline, frequently publishing notices late or neglecting to include news items. In 1920, the owners resigned after a failed attempt to unite all of New England’s journals under one name, leaving behind a financially risky publication in an already unstable financial climate. The Massachusetts Medical Society seized this opportunity and in April 1921, led by Dr. Gage as Chairman, purchased the Journal and took over its management. As with every project that crossed his path, this new era was indicative of all of Gage’s work. The Journal published news both local and international, accepted correspondence from any contributors, maintained an organized directory of members and addresses, and provided updated medical resources. After expanding to represent the New Hampshire and Vermont Medical Societies in 1927, the paper assumed a new name; on February 23, 1928, the first issue of the New England Journal of Medicine was published. In advocating for ownership, Homer Gage guaranteed that all physicians represented by the Massachusetts Medical Society would have equitable access to medical knowledge, decentralizing Boston’s hold on the profession and laying the groundwork for progress throughout New England.

More locally, Homer Gage’s family life and business career was central to the industrial development that defined Worcester’s history and left its mark on the city today. Dr. Gage worked for and later became president of his father-in-law’s business, Crompton and Knowles Loom Works, eventually retiring from medicine in 1923 to focus on the company. As in medicine, he quickly became a sought-out counselor by many of his colleagues and used his social position for philanthropic causes throughout the city and abroad. He and his wife, Mabel, had one son, Homer Gage Jr., who followed his father’s footsteps to Harvard and joined the American Ambulance Service in France during the war. Having survived the war and completed his degree, the young Homer Gage died unexpectedly of polio in 1925 at the age of 29. A few years after his death, Mabel and Homer Gage donated $50,000 to the Lincoln Square Boys Club to name their gymnasium after their son. A memorial tile in his honor, bearing the image of children playing and the words of a poem by Sir Henry Newbolt, is still maintained today, although the building has been converted from a high school to housing units.

Dr. Homer Gage is remembered today both in the expansive texts written about him and in the physical memorials bearing his name. In Shrewsbury, the neighborhood that housed his and Mabel’s summer home, Iristhorpe, is now the site of Gage Lane, while across town a VFW post and a monument at Elm Street recognize his wartime service. In the mid-1920s, the Homer Gage Library was founded at Memorial Hospital to maintain a collection of resources accessible to physicians, residents, nurses, staff, and the public, filling an educational role that Gage would doubtlessly be honored to provide. As one of the driving forces in the creation of the New England Journal of Medicine, his efforts have led to a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing across medicine. In obituaries by colleagues, it is clear that he was adored by all who worked with him and left an immeasurable and unique impression in all of the diverse fields he pursued. Above all, Homer Gage remains today an example of what a humanist physician can accomplish in the clinic, in society broadly, and here in Worcester.

Patricia Giunta, M.A., is a third-year medical student at the University of Massachusetts. Before career changing, she studied Italian history and art in the era of the Black Death. Email: patricia.giunta@ umassmed.edu.

References:

1. Gage, Homer. “Some Abuses in Surgical Practice.” The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 169, no. 1 (1913): 1-7.

2. Bergin, Paul. “Some Worcester Doctors at the Turn of the Century.” In A History of the Worcester District Medical Society and the Worcester Medical Society 1794-1954. Worcester, Massachusetts: Worcester District Medical Society; 1994; 86.

3. Bergin, Paul. “Some Worcester Doctors at the Turn of the Century.” In A History of the Worcester District Medical Society and the Worcester Medical Society 1794-1954. Worcester, Massachusetts: Worcester District Medical Society; 1994.

4. Cheever, David. “HOMER GAGE.” Annals of Surgery 113, vol. 2 (1941):315-7.

5. Gage, Homer. “Some Abuses in Surgical Practice.” The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 169, no. 1 (1913): 1-7.

6. Fitzharris, Lindsey. The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine. New York: Scientific American, 2017.

7. Reis, Jacqueline. “Memorial shows Gages’ love of son.” Worcester Telegram and Gazette. August 29, 2010. https://www. telegram.com/article/20100829/ news/8290384

8. Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society Volume 48, Part 2 (1938): 170-174.