Richard Clarke Cabot

Richard Clarke Cabot
Portrait of Dr. Richard Clarke Cabot
Born	(1868-05-21)May 21, 1868 Brookline, Massachusetts
Died	May 7, 1939(1939-05-07) (aged 70) Cambridge, Massachusetts
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard University, A.B. summa cum laude, 1889; M.D., 1892
Known for	clinical hematology, pioneer in social work; discovered cabot rings
Spouse	Ella Lyman Cabot

Richard Clarke Cabot (May 21, 1868 – May 7, 1939) was an American physician who advanced clinical hematology, was an innovator in teaching methods, and was a pioneer in social work.

Richard Clarke Cabot was born May 21, 1868, in Brookline, Massachusetts, one of five sons of James Elliot Cabot and Elizabeth (Dwight) Cabot. James Cabot was a philosopher and Harvard University professor who also trained as a lawyer and biographer, and was a friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Cabot studied philosophy at Harvard University before switching to medicine. Inspired by the beliefs of John Dewey, Cabot felt more drawn to action than contemplation, and he admired the work of Teddy Roosevelt and Jane Addams. After completing his studies in 1892, he turned down the role of the first bacteriologist at Massachusetts General Hospital to work in the hospital's much less prestigious outpatient department. At this time, outpatient wards dealt mostly with people who couldn't afford inpatient treatment, or for the treatment of incurable chronic conditions such tuberculosis or diabetes. This involved working populations who lived in unhealthy, overcrowded accommodation, often recent migrants.

He changed the way that the outpatient department was run, believing that economic, social, family and psychological conditions underpinned many of the conditions that patients presented with. He envisaged that social workers would work in a complementary relationship with doctors, the former concentrating on physiological health, and the latter on social health. In addition to this, he saw that social work could improve medicine by providing a critical perspective on it while working alongside it in an organisational setting. In 1905 Cabot created one of the first positions of professional social worker in the world, given to Garnet Pelton, and then to Ida Cannon. The hospital refused to support the hiring of social workers, and Cabot had to pay their wages himself. Pelten developed tuberculosis herself soon after taking up the position and was forced to retire. Cannon stayed in the position for forty years and became Head of Social Work at the hospital. Cabot and Cannon pioneered many programs to improve the health of patients, including art classes for psychiatric patients, low-cost meals for patients and research on the social factors that increased a person's likelihood of developing tuberculosis.