Abby Howe Turner


Abby Howe Turner was a noted professor of Physiology and Zoology who founded the department of physiology at Mount Holyoke College. She specialized in colloid osmotic pressure and circulatory reactions to gravity.

Life

Turner was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. She was the daughter of Emeline Mehitabel Cogswell and George Turner. She received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke in 1896. She then studied at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, and the Harvard Medical School. She received her Ph.D. from Radcliffe College in 1926. She did research on students whilst she both taught and worked in a lab at Mount Holyoke from 1896 until her retirement in 1940. She specialized in colloid osmotic pressure and circulatory reactions to gravity. In one of her studies, Turner worked with student majoring in physiology and physical education to study the effects of posture on blood flow on the female body. She died in 1957.