Utica numbers among her foremost medical practitioners Dr. Thomas Wood Clarke, a pediatrician of more than local renown, who has made valuable contribution to the literature of the profession. He was born in this city on the 19th of June, 1878, his parents being Dr. Wallace and Sarah Elizabeth (Scoville) Clarke, the former also a distinguished physician, to whom extended reference is made on another page of this publication.
Thomas Wood Clarke received his early education in the Cecily Baker School of Utica and continued his studies in the Utica Free Academy, from which he received the advanced academic diploma in 1894. He next entered St. Mark's School of South boro, Massachusetts, which conferred upon him the diploma of graduation, and subsequently matriculated in Harvard University, in which institution he completed the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in three years and was graduated in 1899. It was in 1902 that Dr. Clarke was graduated with high honors from Johns Hopkins University, the degree of M. D. being conferred upon him. The record of his professional appointments is as follows: Medical house officer, Johns Hopkins Hospital, service of Dr. William Osler, 1902-03; resident physician, Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio, 1903-05; clinical clerk, Hospital for Sick Children, London, England, service of Dr. Archibald (now Sir) Garrod, 1905-06, six months; volunteer assistant, Kinderpoliklinik, Charite Krankenhaus, University of Berlin, service of Professor Heubner, two months; postgraduate student in Professor Adolf Schmidt's laboratory in Dresden, 1906, one month; postgraduate student, University of Vienna, 1906, two months; clinical assistant, Outpatient Department, Hospital for Sick Children, London, 1906-07, six months, service of Dr. Robert Hutchison; and research student, Laboratory of Bio-Chemistry, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, 1906-07, six months, service of Dr. Archibald Garrod; fellow of the Rockefeller Institute, New York, research work under supervision of Dr. Emmett Holt, fifteen months, 1907-08; clinical assistant, Department of Diseases of Children, Vanderbilt Clinic, New York, three years, 1907-10; assistant editor, Medical Record, 1909-10; assistant in diseases of children, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, two years, 1909-10; attending pediatrist, Faxton Hospital, Utica, 1910-20; attending pediatrist, St. Elizabeth Hospital, Utica, since 1916; and medical director, Baby Welfare Committee of Utica, since 1912.
Dr. Clarke holds membership in the New York County Medical Society, the Oneida County Medical Society, the Medical Society of the State of New York, the American Medical Association, the American Child Health Association and the Central New York Pediatric Club. As a member of the Oneida County Medical Society he has been honored with several official positions, serving as its treasurer from 1912 until 1918, as vice president in 1919, as president in 1920, and as librarian since 1921. He has been a member of the committee on medical research of the Medical Society of the State of New York since 1912, was chosen secretary of the section on diseases of children in 1917, and the following year was made chairman of the section on diseases of children.
While in London Dr. Clarke did research work on the chemistry of Alkaptonuria and also in spectroscopy of the blood, with special reference to sulph-haemoglobinaemia, leading to the discovery of the first English and also the first American cases of the disease. His research work in New York included investigation of the chemistry of the gastric digestion of infants, with special reference to the effects of certain milk modifiers. Dr. Clarke was the organizer and the first and only medical director of the Baby Welfare Committee of Utica. He has also done much public speaking on infant welfare work in the neighborhood of Utica, aiding the State Department of Health in the organization of the work at Rome, Little Falls, Herkimer and Ilion. He organized the Child Welfare Exhibit in Utica in 1916.
Dr. Clarke has delivered the following special addresses: "Sulph-haemoglobinaemia", before the Royal Medical Chirurgical Society of England; "Infant Welfare Work in Second-Class Cities", at the governor's conference on infant welfare work at the capitol at Albany in 1913; "Infant Feeding", at the annual conference of Sanitary Officers and Public Health Nurses at Ithaca, September 15, 1921; "The Public Health Law and the Sanitary Code of the State of New York", delivered at the request of the commissioner of health of the state of New York before the students of Hamilton College in 1915. He is the author of the following publications: "Repeated Copious Haemoptysis from an Aortic Aneurysm", Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, 1905; "The Value of Massive Doses of Salicylates in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute Articular Rheumatism", American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 1906; "Copious Water Drinking and Polyuria in Typhoid Fever", ibid., 1905; "A Case of Congenital Hepatoptosis, Showing a Mese-hepar", ibid., 1905; "Pulmonary Gangrene Following Foreign Bodies in the Bronchi", ibid., 1906; "The Value of Alcohol in Carbolic Acid Poisoning", Journal American Medical Association, 1906; "The Use of Rubber Gloves in Medical Wards", London Lancet, June, 1906; "A New Case of Alkaptonuria", BioChemical Journal, 1907; "Idiopathic Cyanosis Due to Sulph-haemoglobinuria", London Lancet, 1907, also Transactions of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of England, 1907; "On Sulph-haemoglobin", Journal of Physiology, 1907; "Effect of General Health on the Conformity of the Jaw", American Orthodontist, 1909; "The Gastric Digestion of Infants", American Journal of the Medical Sciences, May, 1909; "Effect of Certain of the So-Called Milk Modifiers on the Gastric Digestion of Infants", ibid., June, 1909; "The Problem of Elemental Life", Science, November 18, 1910; "Sulph-haemoglobinaemia, With the Report of the First Case in America", Medical Record, December 3, 1910; "The Diagnosis and Treatment of Meningitis in Children", New York State Medical Journal, June, 1911; "The Diagnostic Value of Gastric Analysis in the Digestive Disturbances of Infancy", Archives of Pediatrics, August, 1911; "The Value of Discipline in the Care of the Sick Child", Transactions of the New York State Nurses' Association, also New York State Journal of Medicine, August, 1913, also Clifton Medical Bulletin, October, 1913; "Infant Welfare Work in Small Cities", Bulletin, New York State Department of Health; "The Baby in the Small City", Ladies' Home Journal, July, 1914; "Can Pneumonia in Children Be Aborted?" New York State Journal of Medicine, November, 1915; "The Baby That Can Not Take Milk", Archives of Pediatrics, April, 1918; "'Colic' in the Nursing Infant", New York State Journal of Medicine, April, 1921; "Public Health", published by National Council, Boy Scouts of America; "Cutting Down Death Toll Among Utica's Babies", Greater Utica (published by the Utica Chamber of Commerce), February, 1921; "Anorexia in Children", New York State Journal of Medicine, March, 1924.
The military record of Dr. Clarke covers service as a private in Troop A of the Ohio National Guard and as surgeon of the Ohio Division of the American Red Cross from 1903 until 1905. He offered himself for overseas duty with the pediatric section of the American Red Cross, but was advised by Dr. Lambert to withdraw his offer, as his services were more needed in central New York at that time. Dr. Clarke acted as chairman of the committee on Red Cross instruction, as chairman of the committee on nursing activities, as vice-chairman and is chairman of Utica Chapter of the American Red Cross. In 1923 he was chairman of the Central New York Regional Conference of the American Red Cross. He has also filled the positions of vice-president of the local council and deputy commissioner of Utica Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He is a charter member and for six years has served as secretary of the board of directors of the Associated Charities of Utica. Dr. Clarke also belongs to the Fort Schuyler Club, the University Club and the Oneida Historical Society and has long enjoyed high standing in both social and professional circles of his native city. His name is widely known as a contributor to the leading medical journals and his opinions have largely become accepted as authority on many points which he discusses.
On the 23d of November, 1914, Dr. Clarke was united in marriage to Miss Angela Clorinda Tracy, daughter of Joseph Charles Tracy, Peruvian consul general in New York city. Dr. and Mrs. Clarke are the parents of three daughters: Angela Tracy, Mary Clorinda and Elizabeth Scoville.