Sarah McNutt


Sarah Jane McNutt, MD was a female physician in the United States, notable as the first woman inducted into the American Neurological Association. McNutt was a founder of the Babies' Hospital in New York City, now known as Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, along with her sister Dr. Julia G McNutt. Her mentors and co-workers Elizabeth Blackwell and Emily Blackwell were some of the first female physicians in the United States. She focused her work on pediatrics, neurology, and medical education.

Early life

Sarah was born in Warrensburg, New York to parents James McNutt and Adaline McNutt. Her twin, Julia G. McNutt, was also a physician. Julia founded the Post-Graduate Training School for Nurses, and worked on the Babies' Hospital with Sarah. Sarah attended the Albany Normal School and the Emma Willard Seminary at Troy, where she learned to teach which was her career for several years.

Medical Career

Education

In 1877 McNutt graduated from the Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary. For two years, until 1879, she interned at the Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary hospital. Her colleagues and mentors, Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell andDr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, shared interests of hers, including pediatrics and neurology. McNutt worked alongside these women at the medical college and hospital for several years.

Teaching

McNutt taught a course in gynecology at the medical college and was an instructor of surgery. Along with Dr. Jacobi, she helped to found the New York Post Graduate Medical School and Hospital, which continued physician education through lectures. McNutt gave three per week on pediatrics. She was among the first to teach about both pediatric diseases and the correlation between abnormal pathology and disease states, using the morgue to do so.

Pediatrics

McNutt spent much time working towards creating the field of pediatrics, designing a specialty in diseases of women and children. McNutt found, using a citywide survey, that there was no pediatric ward in any New York hospital. There were only 10 beds dedicated to the pediatric population. After creating a pediatric ward at the New York Post Graduate Medical School in 1888, McNutt and her sister Julia opened the Babies' Hospital for children two years old and younger. The name of the hospital has changed multiple times, and the age of patients has expanded from two years and under to up to 20 years of age.

Medical Societies

McNutt became the first female member of the American Neurological Association when inducted in 1884, at the 10th annual meeting. Royal W. Amidon, secretary of the ANA in 1883, was a consultant of the hospital where McNutt worked. McNutt had clinical contact with ANA members C.L. Dana and William A. Hammond, through her work at the medical school and hospital. Amidon and Hammond were the two members to nominate McNutt. At her induction meeting, she presented her ANA thesis on Double Infantile Spastic Hemiplegia.

Works