Drinker, Cecil Kent, 1887-1956

Drinker taught physiology and served as Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Cecil Kent Drinker (1887-1956) was the Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health from 1936 to 1948, and a physiologist at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. Drinker's research focused on the lymphatic system, tissue fluid exchange, and blood circulation. He also studied industrial and work-related poisoning and hygiene, and methods of artificial respiration. During World War II, Drinker conducted respiratory physiological research for the United States military, and contributed to the development of high-altitude oxygen masks and goggles for allied aviators.

Cecil Kent Drinker was Professor of Physiology and Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health whose research specialized in industrial medicine and hygiene. Drinker was a pioneer in industrial medicine, and established industrial hygiene and applied physiology as disciplines in preventive medicine and public health. He was an authority on the lymphatic system, tissue fluid exchange, blood circulation, industrial and work-related poisoning and hygiene, as well as methods of artificial respiration. Drinker was one of the first physicians to stress the importance of the respiratory tract as the route of absorption of toxic dust and fumes, and after he completed research on manganese inhalation, became one of the leading experts in treating manganese poisoning in the United States

Drinker was born in Philadelphia on 17 March 1887 to Henry Sturgis Drinker and Aimee Ernesta Beaux. Drinker received the BS from Haverford College in 1908 and MD from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1913. While studying at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, he developed appendicitis; three subsequent operations for internal obstruction made him ineligible for military service during World War I. Drinker married Katherine Livingstone Rotan, a graduate of the Woman’s Medical College of Penn., in 1910.

After receiving his MD, Drinker completed a residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, an experience that stimulated his career-long interest in the clinical applications of physiological research. From 1915 to 1916, Drinker served as an instructor in the department of physiology at Johns Hopkins Medical School. In 1916 he returned to Boston to take a position as a faculty instructor at Harvard Medical School in Walter B. Cannon’s physiology department. Two months later, Cannon was called into active military service, and Drinker was named acting head of the Department of Physiology until Cannon returned in 1918. Drinker was subsequently appointed Assistant Professor in 1918, Associate Professor in 1919, and Professor of Physiology in 1923, a post he held at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health until his retirement in 1948. From 1924 to 1935 Drinker was Assistant Dean of Harvard School of Public Health and, from 1935 to 1942, Dean of Harvard School of Public Health. During World War II, Drinker conducted respiratory physiological research for the United States armed forces, and contributed to the development of high-altitude oxygen masks and goggles for allied aviators. After retiring from Harvard School of Public Health in 1948, he lectured at Cornell Medical School from 1948 to 1949 and was a consultant to many industrial organizations, as well as the United States Navy, from 1951 to 1953. From 1926 to 1927, Drinker spent a sabbatical year in Copenhagen, Denmark in the Laboratory of Zoöphysiology at the University of Copenhagen working with Professor August Krogh on research on the lymphatic system, one of Drinker's major areas of research during his career.

Drinker published 250 articles, textbooks, and reports during his career on topics including the circulatory system, lymphatic system, industrial hygiene, asphyxiation, and physiology. In 1954 he published the textbook Clinical Physiology of the Lungs. He was also instrumental in starting the Journal of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology. For many years, Drinker, his wife, and his brother Philip were the editors of this publication.

Drinker died on 15 April 1956 in Falmouth, Mass.