# Philip S. Hench
**Philip Showalter Hench** According to his Nobel lecture, Hench traced the disease-relieving substance he called "substance X" through observations of jaundiced and pregnant patients to Kendall's compound E, and directed the first therapeutic injections in September 1948.[3](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62495-6/fulltext)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | February 28, 1896, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/) |
| Died | March 30, 1965, Ocho Rios, Jamaica[2](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/) |
| Field | Rheumatology[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/) |
| Nobel Prize | 1950, Physiology or Medicine, 1/3 share, "for their discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects"[2](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/) |
| Signature work | Compound E (cortisone) trials in rheumatoid arthritis, Mayo Clinic, 1948–1949[3](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62495-6/fulltext) |
| Mayo career | Fellow 1921–1923; Head of Rheumatic Diseases 1926; Professor of Medicine 1947; retired 1957[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/) |
| Wartime service | Lieutenant-colonel, Medical Corps, 1942–1946; left as colonel[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/) |
## Early life and training
According to his Nobel Prize biography, Hench was born in Pittsburgh, the son of Jacob Bixler Hench and Clara Showalter.[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/) He graduated [Bachelor of Arts](https://www.edgepedia.org/bachelor-of-arts) from [Lafayette College](https://www.edgepedia.org/lafayette-college) in 1916 and took his doctorate in medicine at the [University of Pittsburgh](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-pittsburgh) in 1920.[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/) He interned at Saint Francis Hospital from 1920 to 1921, then spent 1921 to 1923 as a fellow of the Mayo Foundation, beginning an association with the Mayo Clinic that lasted his career.[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/) • [3](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62495-6/fulltext)
## Career at the Mayo Clinic
In 1926, three years after joining Mayo, Hench became Head of the clinic's Department of Rheumatic Diseases and established its rheumatology practice.[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/) • [4](https://alumniassociation.mayo.edu/searching-for-substance-x/) He spent 1928 to 1929 studying at Freiburg University and at the von Müller Clinic in Munich.[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/) His academic rank rose through the Mayo Foundation ladder: instructor in 1928, Assistant Professor in 1932, Associate Professor in 1935, and Professor of Medicine in 1947.[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/)
In 1942 he joined the military with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Medical Corps, and at the Army and Navy General Hospital in [Hot Springs, Arkansas](https://www.edgepedia.org/hot-springs-arkansas) he held the posts of Chief of the Medical Service and Director of the Army's Rheumatism Centre; he departed the army in 1946 as a colonel.[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/) • [3](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62495-6/fulltext) He retired from active practice in 1957.[3](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62495-6/fulltext)
## Representative work: from substance X to cortisone
**The clinical clue.** Hench's route to cortisone began with bedside observations. He noted that in patients with both jaundice and rheumatoid arthritis, severe arthritic symptoms decreased or disappeared during flares of jaundice; one such patient, seen on 1 April 1929, had arthritis that "disappeared" within days after sudden jaundice developed.[3](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62495-6/fulltext) • [5](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(25)02124-X/fulltext) He extended the observation to pregnancy, reporting in 1938 a series of about 16 women whose rheumatoid arthritis remitted during pregnancy.[3](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62495-6/fulltext) He concluded that the pain-alleviating agent, which he named "substance X," was a steroid, and published the theory in 1934.[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/) • [3](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62495-6/fulltext)
**Compound E.** At the [Mayo Clinic](https://www.edgepedia.org/mayo-clinic), Edward C. Kendall had isolated several steroids from the adrenal cortex between 1930 and 1938; by 1940, about 20 adrenal compounds were known, at least three with physiological effects, and producing 1 g of compound A required over 2,000 pounds of animal adrenal gland.[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/) • [6](https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/41.5.582) According to *Behind the Scenes With Cortisone and ACTH*, Kendall isolated compound E, chemically 17-hydroxy-11-dehydrocorticosterone, in 1935.[5](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(25)02124-X/fulltext) According to *The discovery of cortisone: a personal memory*, Hench persuaded Kendall to release the scarce extracts for a clinical trial.[7](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1113923/)
According to *Philip Showalter Hench, 1896–1965*, on 21 September 1948, Hench's colleague [Charles H. Slocumb](https://www.edgepedia.org/charles-h-slocumb) gave the first injection of compound E to a 29-year-old patient with severe rheumatoid arthritis, the first therapeutic use of the substance.[6](https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/41.5.582) • [8](https://history.mayoclinic.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1950.pdf) The Rheumatology memoir records an opening dose of 50 mg followed by four days of 100 mg daily, while Mayo Clinic's institutional history records 100 mg; after the first days of treatment the patient could walk out of the hospital.[6](https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/41.5.582) • [8](https://history.mayoclinic.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1950.pdf) Over the following months Hench, Slocumb, and [Howard F. Polley](https://www.edgepedia.org/howard-f-polley) treated a series of patients, reported as about 10 over six months by Mayo Clinic Proceedings and as about 10 more, including two given the recently isolated ACTH, by the [Rheumatology](https://www.edgepedia.org/rheumatology) memoir; within days each patient had major reduction in stiffness and aching and increased joint mobility.[3](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62495-6/fulltext) • [6](https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/41.5.582)
On 13 April 1949 Hench presented the results, with before-and-after cine film, to an overfilled Mayo Clinic staff meeting in a lecture titled "The effect of a hormone of the adrenal cortex (17-hydroxy-11-dehydrocorticosterone: compound E) and of pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone on rheumatoid arthritis"; a New York Times reporter spread news of the "modern miracle."[6](https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/41.5.582) • [9](https://ard.bmj.com/content/83/6/700) The generic name "cortisone," adopted in 1949, was devised by Hench himself.[5](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(25)02124-X/fulltext)
## Nobel Prize and honors
The 1950 [Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine](https://www.edgepedia.org/nobel-prize-in-physiology-or-medicine) was shared three ways: Hench and Kendall, whose chemical and clinical work was done at the Mayo Clinic, and the Polish-Swiss chemist [Tadeus Reichstein](https://www.edgepedia.org/tadeus-reichstein), who had discovered cortisone independently; each received a one-third share, cited "for their discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects."[2](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/) • [3](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62495-6/fulltext) Kendall and Reichstein had independently isolated and analyzed a number of similar adrenal cortex hormones from the mid-1930s.[2](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/) Hench was a founder member of the American Rheumatism Association and its President in 1940 to 1941, and held honorary memberships of the [Royal Society of Medicine](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-society-of-medicine) in London and rheumatism societies in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, and Spain.[1](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/)
## Legacy
Cortisone, developed as a replacement therapy for hypocortisolism, became a treatment used across almost every field of medicine, from vasculitis and lupus to allergies, skin diseases, and malignancies, and was popularly called the "wonder" and "miracle" drug.[9](https://ard.bmj.com/content/83/6/700) Supply was the first constraint: a biological manufacturing method using the fungus [Rhizopus nigricans](https://www.edgepedia.org/rhizopus-stolonifer), found only in 1952, made large-scale production possible, and physicians were besieged by patients while a market for dubious imitations arose.[6](https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/41.5.582) Early use also showed the therapy's limits: cortisone caused hypertension, weight gain, anxiety, gastrointestinal ulcers, hypomania, and psychosis at high doses, and it could not cure or modify rheumatoid arthritis itself, only suppress its symptoms.[4](https://alumniassociation.mayo.edu/searching-for-substance-x/) A 2007 Mayo Clinic study found that survival of patients with rheumatoid arthritis had not increased in four decades even as mortality improved in the general population.[4](https://alumniassociation.mayo.edu/searching-for-substance-x/) According to *Journey through discovery of 75 years glucocorticoids*, the cultural reach of the discovery is captured by the painter [Raoul Dufy](https://www.edgepedia.org/raoul-dufy), who was impressed by a patient treated with cortisone in 1948 who regained full mobility and could squeeze his paint tubes unassisted, and painted "La Cortisone" in response.[10](https://ard.bmj.com/content/83/12/1603) After retirement Hench worked with the Nobel Foundation to establish the Nobel Conferences.[6](https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/41.5.582)
## References
1. [Philip S. Hench – Biographical, Nobel Foundation](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/biographical/)
2. [Philip S. Hench – Facts, Nobel Foundation](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1950/hench/)
3. https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)62495-6/fulltext
4. [Searching for substance X, Mayo Clinic Alumni Association](https://alumniassociation.mayo.edu/searching-for-substance-x/)
5. https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(25)02124-X/fulltext
6. [Philip Showalter Hench, 1896–1965, Rheumatology](https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/41.5.582)
7. [The discovery of cortisone: a personal memory](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1113923/)
8. [1950: Mrs. G Gets Compound E, Mayo Clinic history](https://history.mayoclinic.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1950.pdf)
9. [Philip S Hench and the discovery of cortisone, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases](https://ard.bmj.com/content/83/6/700)
10. [Journey through discovery of 75 years glucocorticoids, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases](https://ard.bmj.com/content/83/12/1603)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Life and health › Life and health scientists › Medical and health researchers › Rheumatology researchers*
*Initially written Sep 21, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 25, 2026 · Last review: Sep 25, 2026*
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