Jonathan Mason Warren

Jonathan Mason Warren (February 5, 1811August 19, 1867) was an American surgeon. He specialized in plastic and reconstructive surgery. He is known to be the first person to perform rhinoplasty in the United States.

Biography

He was born between Susan Powell Mason and John Collins Warren, on February 5, 1811, in the house located at the No. 2 Park Street, Boston."Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915, 1921-1924," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-XW1S-TJ3?cc=1463156&wc=MJC1-2NL%3A1043009501 (account registration required): 13 December 2022), 0960191 (004221407) > image 479 of 701; State Archives, Boston.

He entered the Boston Latin School in 1820 and graduated in 1825. After studying under a private tutor for two years, he entered the Harvard College in 1827. But due to his health, he left Harvard after three months. In the spring of 1828, he began his medical studies under the direction of his father. In the fall of 1830 he entered the Harvard Medical School, and received an MD degree in 1832 at the age of 21.

In March 1832, He left Boston to study in Europe, mostly in Paris. He studied alongside other American students such as Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Oliver Wendel Holmes and Robert William Hooper, who were also seeking medical education in the region. He visited many notable doctors at the time, including: Astley Cooper, Charles Bell, James Syme and Robert Liston in the United Kingdom, Guillaume Dupuytren, Philibert Joseph Roux, Jacques Lisfranc and Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis in France. Most notably, he witnessed Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach who was on a visit from Vienna, perform his rhinoplastic operations in 1834.

After three years of study, he returned to Boston in June 1835 where he worked in general practice. He specialized in reconstructive surgery; he was one of the first surgeons to perform rhinoplasty operations in the United States, and developed ways to close cleft palate through surgery.

He married Anna Caspar on April 30, 1839. One of their children is John Collins Warren Jr.

He received an honorary MA degree from Harvard College in 1844.In February 1846, he was elected one of the visiting surgeons of the Massachusetts General Hospital. After the first public demonstration of ether anesthesia by W. T. G. Morton, he substituted for Morton's apparatus for cone-shaped sponge which was adapted quickly for the purpose of administering ether, especially to children.

On May 6, 1853, while returning from a meeting of the American Medical Association in New York, he was a passenger on the train which met with the Norwalk rail accident. He survived as well as his family, thanks to him being in the middle section of the car at the request of his wife. However, other several members of the association, including William Cecil Dwight and Abel Lawrence Peirson, who were in the same car as the one Warren was in, were killed.

He was a senior surgeon of the hospital for several years until his death. He died on August 9, 1867 in the same house where he was born.

Gallery

File:Warren, Jonathan Mason, 1811-1867., 1844 - cropped.png, Mason in Paris, 1844.
File:The Warren family home at 2 Park Street, Boston.png, Interior of the house located at 2 Park Street in Boston, the place he was born and died. Circa 1860.
File:Members of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement.jpg, Mason (sitting, third from right) with other members of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement. Shot between 18431854.
File:Dr. J. Mason Warren (cropped).jpg, Mason in later years. Circa 1860.

Selected writings

*
*
*

Sources

*

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Warren, Jonathan Mason
Physicians from Boston
American surgeons
Harvard Medical School alumni
1811 births
1867 deaths