Louis E. Schimdt, MD, Chairman, 1900-1948
The Department of Urology was born in the fertile environment of the early twentieth century. Much of the department dealt with venereal and dermatological conditions, but became more diverse as the electric lamp was adopted for cystoscopy. Louis E. Schmidt, then a 30-year-old Chicagoan, had returned from study abroad after his graduation from Northwestern Medical School in 1895. In 1900, he interested his alma mater in adding a Urology Department and making him its Chairman. Earlier, he had inaugurated one of the nation's first urology services at Alexian Brother's Hospital. In 1902, as the American Urological Society (AUA) was forming, Ramon Guiteras asked Schmidt to help start a branch in Chicago. Among the potential members invited to join was William Belfield, who later became president of this first AUA section. For years the society met in Schmidt's offices in an old theater building and usually adjourned to the Union Restaurant for discussions and beer. Schmidt developed a national reputation and was president of the AUA and the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons (AAGUS). He helped start urology services in many Chicago area hospitals.
Dr. Schmidt attracted notable faculty to Northwestern, including Harry Rolnick, co-author of a widely used medical textbook; Harry Culver, who built a service at the County Hospital; and James Farrell, who had collaborated in Huggin's laboratory at the University of Chicago. Schmidt wrote a number of articles on "skiagraphic" examinations using radio-opaque, floppy wires to delineate the course of the ureter and the vas. He described experience in cystoscopic diagnosis and surgery using galvanocautery in the prostate and the bladder. However, he was perhaps best known as a crusader for making the treatment of gonorrhea available to the poor and for leading a national fight to adopt blood tests for syphilis. These issues often found him in opposition to organized medicine.
Schmidt's fellow Chairman at Northwestern was the world famous John B. Murphy. This was in a day when much of the open surgery in urology was performed by general surgeons. Murphy was especially noted for teaching clinics at Mercy Hospital which often featured a perineal prostatectomy. His publications included the surgical anatomy of the kidney and genitourinary tuberculosis. Victor Lespinasse, a frequent collaborator of Dr. Schmidt and faculty member for over 45 years, published innovative articles on organ transplantation including techniques in vascular surgery and transfusion.
