A pioneer in laryngology, he saved the lives of many

Chevalier Jackson, a pioneer in the field of laryngology, developed instruments for endoscopies and trained physicians in their use at his Philadelphia and Pittsburgh clinics.

Renowned during his lifetime, Jackson invented the bronchoscope - a hollow tube with a light attached - that allowed physicians to locate foreign objects in the lungs and remove them. It has been estimated that he personally saved 5,000 lives with this procedure.

Jackson was also an advocate. His persistent work in trying to prevent stricture in children, which was caused by swallowing lye, resulted in the passage of the Federal Caustic Labeling Act of 1927, which mandated the labeling of poisonous material.

The doctor held professorships at many area medical schools (including Jefferson, Penn, and Temple), and served as president of the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania (now Drexel School of Medicine) from 1935 to 1941. The Chevalier Jackson-Norris Clinic is now part of Temple University's Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery.

Jackson took protecting throats seriously, particularly his own. He neither smoked nor drank and at football games even used Halloween noise-makers instead of cheering. He was the author of several textbooks and monographs, including The Life of Chevalier Jackson: An Autobiography and What Does Your Baby Put in His Mouth? He wrote more than 400 medical articles.

His legacy includes three medical eponyms: "Jackson's position," relating to intubation; "Jackson's safety triangle," a triangular space near the thyroid; and "Jackson's sign," a wheezing sound made when foreign bodies are in the trachea or bronchus.

A quick wit, Jackson is also known to have said: "In teaching the medical student, the primary requisite is to keep him awake," and "A physician without knowledge of pulmonary function is like a doughnut without a hole."