Career

Born March 28 1893 in Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

, Arnold Rich attended the University of Virginia

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

, majoring in biology

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

, and then, fatefully, went to the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland from which he received his M.D.

Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

 degree in 1919. He remained associated with Hopkins the rest of his career. He was appointed Chairman of the Department of Pathology

Pathology

Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....

 and pathologist-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1944 and so served until he retired in 1958.

Work

Arnold Rich had broad interests in medicine. Among his many contributions, he classified jaundice

Jaundice

Jaundice is a yellowish pigmentation of the skin, the conjunctival membranes over the sclerae , and other mucous membranes caused by hyperbilirubinemia . This hyperbilirubinemia subsequently causes increased levels of bilirubin in the extracellular fluid...

, helped understand the formation of bile pigment, studied the relationship between hypersensitivity

Hypersensitivity

Hypersensitivity refers to undesirable reactions produced by the normal immune system, including allergies and autoimmunity. These reactions may be damaging, uncomfortable, or occasionally fatal. Hypersensitivity reactions require a pre-sensitized state of the host. The four-group classification...

 and immunity

Immunity (medical)

Immunity is a biological term that describes a state of having sufficient biological defenses to avoid infection, disease, or other unwanted biological invasion. Immunity involves both specific and non-specific components. The non-specific components act either as barriers or as eliminators of wide...

, especially in tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 (on which he was one of the reigning experts) and discovered the phagocytic function of the Gaucher cell, the hallmark of Gaucher's disease

Gaucher's disease

Gaucher's disease is a genetic disease in which a fatty substance accumulates in cells and certain organs.Gaucher's disease is the most common of the lysosomal storage diseases. It is caused by a hereditary deficiency of the enzyme glucosylceramidase. The enzyme acts on the fatty acid...

.
A number of diseases or conditions are named after Arnold Rich, including:

• Hamman-Rich syndrome
  Hamman-Rich syndrome
  Acute interstitial pneumonitis is a rare, severe lung disease which usually affects otherwise healthy individuals.As of 2010, there is no known cause or treatment....
  
   and the
• Rich focus
  Rich focus
  A Rich focus is a tuberculous granuloma occurring on the cortex of the brain that ruptures into the subarachnoid space, causing tuberculous meningitis.It is named for Arnold Rice Rich who first described it....
  
  

Family

In 1925 he married the pianist and composer Helen Jones. They had two daughters: the poet Adrienne Rich

Adrienne Rich

Adrienne Cecile Rich is an American poet, essayist and feminist. She has been called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century."-Early life:...

(1929- ) and the writer Cynthia Rich (1933- ). Arnold Rice Rich died April 17, 1968 in Baltimore.

External links

• Brief biography of Arnold Rice Rich in WhoNamedIt?