Catherine A. Smith, Ph.D.
We know now that our inner ears contain a fluid called endolymph, a fluid totally different from all of our “extracellular” fluids, like blood, lymph and cerebral spinal fluid. All of these fluids have a large concentration of sodium and a small concentration of potassium.
But endolymph is rich in potassium and has little sodium. Just like the fluids that we have inside our cells. Large amounts of energy are needed to fuel our sodium-potassium “pumps,” the enzymes that remove the sodium from these special, potassium rich, fluids.
Of course, all scientists know this.
But not all of them know who discovered the composition of endolymph. It was a scientist called Catherine Smith. She worked for many years at the Department of Otolaryngology of Washington University in Saint Louis. This important work was published in 1954*.
She started her brilliant career as a laboratory technician. Drs. Theo Walsh, Walter Covell and Edward Dempsey, Professor of Anatomy, realized her potentials and stimulated her in getting a Ph.D. degree. She soon became a Professor. The quality of her research caused her to be invited to the Collegium Otorhinolaryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum and many other American and European scientific societies.
Catherine was not in Saint Louis when I arrived there, in 1958. She had gone to Sweden to study the inner ear by electron microscopy. In fact the University bought her an electron microscope that arrived shortly before her return from Sweden, where she spent one year. The whole Department cherished her return, she was among friends and I was happy that she quickly added me to her list of friends. At this time she got involved in a series of studies of the nerve endings of the cochlear hair cells, a research program that kept her busy until she retired and moved to Oregon Health and Science University. She lived in Portland until her death.
Her schedule in Saint Louis was very tight, but she had time for her friends and she helped me very much in my work. At the time I was working with histochemistry and fluorescence microscopy, and she gave me a lot of good advice. The pictures that illustrate this page are slides that she gave me from the time she was studying the vascularization of the cochlea.
It took me about six months to find that she had a severe hearing loss. It happened that I went to her lab and she was talking on the telephone. Her hearing aid was the body type hearing aid, no longer available. She held the talking portion of the phone near her mouth and the hearing part near her breast, where the hearing aid microphone was placed. Later I found from Dr. Walsh that she had an intense hearing loss due to otosclerosis.
She could not come to our Collegium Meeting in Brazil, in Costa do Sauipe, but she sent me a tender note. She wrote about our days in Saint Louis and her words brought many reminiscences of an unforgetable time in our lives.
* Smith CA, Lowry OH, Wu ML. The electrolytes of the labyrinthine fluids. Laryngoscope, 1954; 64: 141-53.
But endolymph is rich in potassium and has little sodium. Just like the fluids that we have inside our cells. Large amounts of energy are needed to fuel our sodium-potassium “pumps,” the enzymes that remove the sodium from these special, potassium rich, fluids.
Of course, all scientists know this.
But not all of them know who discovered the composition of endolymph. It was a scientist called Catherine Smith. She worked for many years at the Department of Otolaryngology of Washington University in Saint Louis. This important work was published in 1954*.
Vascularization of the stria vascularis
A human cochlea with vessels injected with Nankin ink
Her schedule in Saint Louis was very tight, but she had time for her friends and she helped me very much in my work. At the time I was working with histochemistry and fluorescence microscopy, and she gave me a lot of good advice. The pictures that illustrate this page are slides that she gave me from the time she was studying the vascularization of the cochlea.
Vascularization of the modiolus of the cochlea
It took me about six months to find that she had a severe hearing loss. It happened that I went to her lab and she was talking on the telephone. Her hearing aid was the body type hearing aid, no longer available. She held the talking portion of the phone near her mouth and the hearing part near her breast, where the hearing aid microphone was placed. Later I found from Dr. Walsh that she had an intense hearing loss due to otosclerosis.
She could not come to our Collegium Meeting in Brazil, in Costa do Sauipe, but she sent me a tender note. She wrote about our days in Saint Louis and her words brought many reminiscences of an unforgetable time in our lives.
* Smith CA, Lowry OH, Wu ML. The electrolytes of the labyrinthine fluids. Laryngoscope, 1954; 64: 141-53.
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