Perry Cossart Baird Jr.

Perry Cossart Baird Jr. (1903–1959 ) was an American physician, who while suffering from bipolar disorder (then known as manic depressive psychosis) was also trying to find the cause of the disease. During this time, the prevailing theory was that mental illness was psychological, not physiological. He was the first person to search for a biochemical basis for mania, by injecting adrenalectomized animals with the blood of manic patients.

In April 1944, Baird's article Biochemical Component of the Manic-Depressive Psychosis was published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.

Baird's research was halted many times due to his own manic episodes and the work was never completed. During his incarceration in Westborough State Hospital and Baldpate Hospital, Baird wrote a manuscript of his experiences, titled “Echoes from a Dungeon Cell”, detailing the harsh treatment of mental patients at that time.

In 2015, his research work and the manuscript he wrote while institutionalised were published in a book, He Wanted The Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird and His Daughter’s Quest to Know Him, written by his daughter, Mimi Baird. Plan B Entertainment has optioned the book for a film and Tony Kushner is writing the screenplay.

Education In June, 1924 Baird graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Texas in just three years and went on to attend Harvard Medical School. While in medical school, he published several articles in the American Journal of Physiology (see below) and in June 1928 graduated magna cum laude with the highest academic honors available.

After experiencing another manic episode, Baird was admitted to McLean Hospital in the fall of 1934 and stepped away from his research. But in 1940, he resumed, beginning a correspondence with Massachusetts General Hospital's Dr. Walter B. Cannon and drafting an article on the biochemical component of mania. In late 1943, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease accepted Baird's article: “Biochemical Component of the Manic-Depressive Psychosis.”

Scientific papers The Involuntary Contraction Follow Isometric Contraction of Skeletal Muscle in Man, A. Forbes, P.C. Baird, and A. McH. Hopkins. The American Journal of Physiology, Vol. 78, No. 1, 81–103, September, 1926 The Relative Duration of Contraction in Flexors And Extensors, P.C. Baird, Jr., and J.F. Fulton. The American Journal of Physiology, Vol. LXXX1, 462–463, 1927 Weight and the Month of Birth, W.T. Porter and P.C. Baird, Jr. The American Journal of Physiology, Vol.81, No.1, 1–5, June, 1927 The Effect of the Interval Following Decerebration on The Results of Low Spinal Treatment, A. Forbes and P.C. Baird, Jr. American Journal of Physiology, Vol.87, 527–531, January 1929 Treatment of Addison’s Disease with Cortin, Perry C. Baird, Jr. and Fuller Albright. Archives of Internal Medicine, 394–409, 1932 Effect of Cortical Hormone in Preventing Extreme Drop in Colonic Temperature, Displayed by Hypophysectomized Rats upon Exposure to Cold with Preliminary Observations upon the Effect Of Hypophyseal and other Hormones, Perry C. Baird, Jr., Elizabeth Cloney and Fuller Albright. American Journal of Physiology, 104, #2: 489–501, January, 1933 Common Missed Diagnoses in Dermatology, Dr. Perry C. Baird, Jr. The Medical Clinics of North America, Vol. 21, 621–635, March, 1937 Report on Medical Progress: Dermatology, Perry C. Baird, Jr. M.D. The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 220, 794–801, May, 1939 Medical Progress: Etiology and Treatment of Urticaria: Diagnosis, Prevention and Treatment of Poison-Ivy Dermatitis, Perry C. Baird, Jr. The New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 224, 649–658, April, 1941. The Physiology of the Skin, Perry C. Baird, Jr. and Walter F. Lever and Tom D. Spies. Annual Review of Physiology, Vol. 4, 171–184, 1942 Biochemical Component of the Manic-Depressive Psychosis, Perry C. Baird, Jr. M.D. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Vol. 99, 359–366, June, 1944