HOWARD ATWOOD KELLY

'Howard Atwood Kelly' (Feb, 20 1858 - Jan, 12 1943) was a distinguished American gynecologist, born at Camden, N. J., and educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated B.A. in 1877 and M.D. in 1882, and where he was associate professor of obstetrics in 1888-89. While in Philadelphia he founded Kensington Hospital. He was professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Johns Hopkins University from 1889 to 1899 and after the latter year — when he became also gynecological surgeon in Johns Hopkins Hospital — of gynecology alone. High attainments in his special field brought Dr. Kelly many honors — he received the degree of (LL.D.) from Aberdeen and Washington and Lee universities and from the University of Pennsylvania; served as president of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Society in 1907 and of the American Gynecological Society in 1912; and was elected fellow or honorary member of English, Scottish, French, German, Austrian, and Italian obstetrical and gynecological societies. Besides contributing some 300 valuable articles to medical journals and editing, with C. P. Noble, ''Gynecology and Abdominal Surgery'' (volume i, 1907; volume ii, 1908), he published:

★ ''Operative Gynecology'' (two volumes, 1899)

★ ''The Vermiform Appendix and its Diseases'' (1905, 1909)

★ ''Walter Reed and Yellow Fever'' (1906, 1907)

★ ''Medical Gynecology'' (1908)

★ ''Myomata of the Uterus'', with T. S. Cullen (1909)

★ ''Cyclopœdia of American Medical Biography'' (1912)

★ ''American Medical Botanists'' (1913)

★ ''Diseases of the Kidneys, Ureters, and Bladder'', with C. F. Burnam, (two volumes, 1914)

Contents

Anecdote

Anecdote

In his school days, Howard Kelly was very poor and gathered the fees for his school by going door to door and selling goods. One day, he had just one dime left with him and he was very hungry. So he decided to ask for a meal at the next house.
However on seeing a beautiful young lady open the door, he lost his nerve and asked for a glass of water instead. The lady sensed that the boy was hungry and gave him a glass of milk. After drinking the milk, Kelly asked the lady how much he owed her. The lady refused to take anything and told him that her mother had told her not to accept anything for kindness. Kelly thanked her and left.
Many year's later that same young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease.
Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. He immediately recognized the lady. He paid special attention to her, and after a long battle the lady was cured. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She read these words .. "Paid in full with one glass of milk"
The Generous Gift of a Glass of Milk that Ended up Paying for Medical Care-Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
A boy from a poor family who was a door-to-door salesman ran out of money. He was hungry and decided to ask for food from the next person who answered the door. He ended up merely asking for a glass of water, however, and the woman he asked brought him a glass of milk instead. Many years later, the poor boy was now a famous physician named Dr. Howard Kelly and the woman who gave him the glass of milk was seriously ill. He gave himself to her care, she recovered, and when the bill was presented, Dr. Kelly wrote, "Paid in full with one glass of milk,"
The Truth:
As is often the case, someone has fictionalized the details of this story and gotten some of it wrong, but it is essentially a true event.
Dr. Howard Kelly was a distinguished physician who, in 1895, founded the Johns Hopkins Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Johns Hopkins University. According to Dr. Kelly's biographer, Audrey Davis, the doctor was on a walking trip through Northern Pennsylvania one spring day when we stopped by a farm house for a drink of water. A little girl answered his knock at the door and instead of water, brought him a glass of fresh milk. He visited with her briefly, then went his way. Sometime after that, the little girl came to him as a patient and needed surgery. After the surgery, the bill was brought to her room and on it were the words, "Paid in full with one glass of milk."
Our thanks to Andrew Harrison, the Processing Archivist and Fine Arts Coordinator for the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, for help with this story.