Richard Clarke Cabot (1868-1939), an American physician, pioneered clinical hematology, was an innovator in teaching methods, and introduced the concept of the medical social worker.

Richard Cabot was born in Brookline, Mass., on May 21, 1868. He studied at the Noble and Greenough School before going on to Harvard, from which he graduated with high honors in 1889. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1892 and interned there for the next 18 months. In 1894 he married Ella Lyman and settled in Boston.

Cabot's research during 1894 and 1895 indicated that the white blood cell count increases as a result of certain illnesses, like appendicitis; this was therefore a useful diagnostic aid. His first book was A Guide to the Clinical Examination of the Blood for Diagnostic Purposes (1896). He served aboard the U.S. Army hospital ship Bay State during the Spanish-American War. His interest in diagnosis continued, and in 1901 Physical Diagnosis of Diseases of...