Walter Sutton

Walter Stanborough Sutton was born in 1877 in Utica, New York.  When Walter was ten, his father, a successful lawyer and judge in Utica, moved the family to a 725 acre ranch near Russell, Kansas. Rutger’s ranch was suitable for cattle grazing as well as planting rye, barley and oats. Sutton’s family prospered, with his father resuming his law practice and being in demand as a public speaker at political campaigns.

Sutton’s ability to fix farm machinery as a young boy pointed initially to a career in engineering. Tragedy struck in 1897 when his whole family became ill with typhoid fever and his younger brother, John Marshall, died at the age of seventeen. This event prompted Sutton to switch from engineering to a premedical curriculum at the University of Kansas. His mechanical gifts and training in engineering would not be lost, as demonstrated by his contributions to oil drilling in later years. He excelled as a student and a sportsman, becoming a member of the basketball team as well as being elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in 1900. In 1901 he completed a Master’s thesis in the laboratory of noted cytologist, C.E. McClung. His thesis dealt with spermatogenesis in grasshoppers. Sutton and McClung were only seven years apart in age and became close friends.

During the early 1900s, chromosome counts were still uncertain and cytology was in its infancy. Although McClung had discovered the X chromosome and concluded that it was related to sex, he incorrectly assumed that it was male-related. The re-discovery of Mendel’s work in 1900 opened the doors for a thorough investigation of chromosomes in meiosis and fertilization. Sutton’s detailed drawings of grasshopper chromosomes and deep understanding of cytology helped gain him entry into Columbia University with E.B. Wilson as his mentor. It is here that Sutton revealed his insight that chromosomes were units of inheritance containing alleles. Specifically, he noticed that chromosomes were paired and that gametes received one chromosome from each pair during meiosis. Hence, Sutton re-discovered Mendels “factors” and described these factors by a term we use today: “genes”. Sutton published two seminal papers detailing his cytological interpretation of Mendelism in 1902 and 1903. T. Boveri, a German cytologist, indepependently observed the same idea and the chromosome theory became known as the Sutton-Boveri hypothesis. 

Because of financial difficulties, Sutton did not complete his Ph.D. and returned to Kansas. There he became a foreman in the oil fields. He left his mark in engineering by inventing a hoisting device for deep well drilling and developing a method for starting large gas engines with high-pressure gas.  Sutton earned enough money to return to Columbia and complete an MD in 1907. He accepted a two-year fellowship at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. Subsequently, he returned to Kansas, where he held an appointment as an associate professor at the University of Kansas Medical School and staff appointments at several Kansas City hospitals. His scientific and mechanical skills translated well into medicine, e.g. he developed a method for irrigating the abdominal cavity when treating a ruptured appendix and he devised a technique to locate foreign bodies by fluoroscope.

Despite his illustrious career as a surgeon, Sutton retained an interest in cytology. He collected reprints on the subject and would point out that he had already worked out their findings in his unpublished thesis.  Apparently he expected his thesis to eventually be published. Sutton became ill with a ruptured appendix and died in 1916 at the age of 39. His keen observation and broad skills made him a rarity among scientists, namely someone who made a lasting contribution to his field through the publication of only two papers.

Reference

1. Crow, E.W. and Crow., J. (2002): 100 Years Ago:Walter Sutton and the Chromosome. Genetics 160, 1-4