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PEDIATRICS Vol. 107 No. 4 April 2001, pp. 805
To the Editor.
The only surviving Hess incubator known to this author is
currently on loan for display at the Spertus Museum in Chicago (Fig
1). A specimen from a forgotten era of
neonatal medicine, this incubator belongs to the first generation of
machines that led to the birth of early premature infant stations
the
ancestors of modern neonatal intensive care units.1-3
View larger version (88K):
[in a new window]
Fig. 1.
The Hess Incubator on display at the Spertus Museum in Chicago. (The
International Museum of Surgical Science at Chicago owns this incubator
and loaned it for 6 months to be displayed at the Spertus Museum, also
in Chicago. I thank both these museums for permission to obtain this
picture and to have it published. Figure photo appears courtesy of the
author).
A popular story has it that Stéphane Tarnier (1828-1897), the renowned French obstetrician, conceived of "incubators" similar to "brooding hens" (coveuses), upon seeing the chicken hatchery at the Paris Zoo in 1878. He then asked Odile Martin, an instrument maker, to construct similar equipment for babies. Martin used an ingenious "thermosiphon" heating system, in which circulating hot water between a double-walled metallic cage warmed the air inside and could hold 2 premature babies. In 1880, the first set of Tarnier incubators was installed at the Paris Maternity Hospital, the world's first neonatal intensive care unit.2
Over the next 3 decades, many incubators were developed incorporating
the basic design features of the Tarnier incubator. In the early 1920s,
Dr Julius Hess in Chicago designed an incubator in which he used
electricity to generate hot water that circulated between the inner and
outer walls of a metallic box. Hess made modifications to administer
oxygen by free-flow. In May 1922, he founded the Premature Infant
Station at Chicago's Sarah Morris Children's Hospital (of Michael
Reese Medical Center)the first such facility in the United
States.4 Hess also developed the Ambulance Boxa
miniature version of his incubator. Collaborating with the City of
Chicago and the Chicago Yellow Cab Company, he organized an infant
transportation program in Chicago at a time when only a handful of
premature baby stations existed in the United States.
The demonstration that incubators could save babies generated such
great optimism among the professionals and the general public that
incubators became symbols of great promise that all medical ills can be
cured by machinesa tunnel vision prevalent even
today.2,5 The incubators thus remain one of the most
enduring symbols of the successes and (paradoxically) the failures of
the modern neonatal intensive care.
Although a large number of Hess incubators were used during the first half of the 20th century, only a few have survived. For decades, 1 specimen had been a hidden gem, on display in relative obscurity at Chicago's International Museum of Surgical Science. Only recently has its importance been brought into the spotlight. For now, it stands on a pedestal under a portrait of Dr Hess, polished and cleaned up, and it is a beauty to behold.
Department of Pediatrics
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL 60612
REFERENCES
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