Abstract
Jean Holzworth, DVM, a lifelong devotee of cats and a veterinarian of immeasurable importance to feline medicine, died on January 13, 2007. A long-time resident at Lake Waramaug in New Preston, Connecticut, Dr Holzworth was born on March 26, 1915 in Port Chester, New York, and attended Greenwich Academy and Bryn Mawr College (AB, MA, and PhD in Latin). A beloved cat's death in 1943 from panleukopenia, a lethal virus infection for which no vaccine then existed, turned her from teaching at Mount Holyoke College to veterinary college at Cornell University, from which she received her DVM degree in 1950. From 1950 to 1986 at the Angell Memorial Animal Hospital of the Massachusetts SPCA in Boston, she specialized in caring for cats. She was a charter member of the Specialty of Internal Medicine within the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, and over several decades she and her colleagues published many studies of important feline disorders. She was one of the first to recognize hyperthyroidism in cats, as well as feline infectious peritonitis, initially describing it as ‘chronic fibrinous peritonitis’ in 1962.
She served as author and editor of the book, Diseases of the Cat: Medicine and Surgery (1987, WB Saunders). Though understandably somewhat dated, the chapter entitled, ‘The Sick Cat,’ co-written by another early champion of feline medicine, Dr Barbara Stein, contains some of the most insightful and instructive information available to veterinarians engaged in treating cats.
Quoting Dr Holzworth from the preface:
‘Passionate cat lovers are legion, but very few are lucky enough to make cats their life work. I am one of these, and this book is, above all, for cat lovers.
Pictures of my forebears, and of me at various ages, show us cuddling cats. The farm cats of my childhood were prone to fatal fits in bedroom closets (a propensity I am still at a loss to explain), and at 10 years I composed a cat's funeral march, of which, unhappily, there were many performances. At 15 I had to be excused from the painful experience of dissecting a cat in biology class; at that time I could not have believed that one day I would feel as much anticipation when starting the autopsy of an ill-fated cat patient as one does when the curtain goes up in the theater.’
Described by a friend as ‘an incurable perfectionist,’ Dr Holzworth insisted upon clarity of thought and precision of language from those under her tutelage, but she held herself to the same high standard. A genuinely humble person, her professional life was guided by a deep love of cats and respect for her colleagues. She also possessed an incisive wit. In a 1981 issue of Time Magazine, she noted, ‘When you talk about convenience, the advent of cat litter is comparable to the invention of the electric light bulb.’
Dr Holzworth contributed greatly to feline medicine and her positive influence is still felt today.
Contributions may be made in memory of her beloved cat, Zoë Holzworth, to the Cornell Feline Health Center, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, Ithaca, NY 14853; Massachusetts SPCA, Boston, MA 02130; or to Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010.