Sir George Frederic Still (1868-1941): A 'father to many children
This paper explores the life and works of a man who defied the limitations of his humble beginnings to become recognised as one of the most notable physicians in the UK to date. Sir George Frederic Still was a pioneer in the field of paediatrics and has earned a reputation as a man who loved both his work and his patients. It is the intention of this paper to cast light on the contribution this man made to the medical profession. (Source: Journal of Medical Biography)
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - October 26, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Sanghera, R. S. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Medical semiotics; its influence on art, psychoanalysis and Sherlock Holmes
Semiotics is the analysis and interpretation of signs and the basis of medicine since antiquity. It is suggested that the growth of technology has led to the virtual eclipse of the clinical examination with consequent loss of skill, empathy and patient trust. This paper views the value of medical semiotics through the method of the 19th century Italian doctor, Giovanni Morelli, which has had a significant but little recognised impact on the early development of psychoanalysis, the detective novel and art connoisseurship. Semiotics and, specifically, the linguistic semiotics of Ferdinand Saussure have been influential in th...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - October 26, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Moore-McCann, B. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
The life and work of the Dumfries surgeon James Hill (1703-1776): his contributions to the management of cancer and of head injury
James Hill was apprenticed to the formidable Edinburgh surgeon, physician and philosopher George Young from whom he learned the value of careful observation and scepticism in medicine. As a surgeon in Dumfries he was able to take advantage of newly established medical journals to publish case reports. His book Cases in Surgery summarised three aspects of his life’s work as a surgeon. In it he provides a classical description of the features and transmission of sibbens (endemic syphilis) and suggests from careful clinical observation that sibbens and venereal syphilis were the same disease. His success with treatment ...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - October 26, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Macintyre, I. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Franklin Delano Roosevelts (FDRs) (1882-1945) 1921 neurological disease revisited; the most likely diagnosis remains Guillain-Barre syndrome
In 2003, we published evidence that the most likely cause of FDR’s 1921 neurological disease was Guillain–Barré syndrome. Afterwards, several historians and neurologists stated in their publications that FDR had paralytic poliomyelitis. However, significant criticism of our article or new support for that diagnosis was not revealed. One critic claimed that FDR’s cerebrospinal fluid indicated poliomyelitis, but we did not find evidence that a lumbar puncture was performed. The diagnosis of FDR’s neurological disease still depends upon documented clinical abnormalities. His age, prolonged symme...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - October 26, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Goldman, A. S., Schmalstieg, E. J., Dreyer, C. F., Schmalstieg, F. C., Goldman, D. A. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Lithotomists, cataract-curers, and hernia-carvers: The Surgical School of Preci
From the 13th to the 18th centuries, a small village in Umbria produced a remarkable multifamily dynasty of highly proficient surgeons. Skilled in lithotomy (cutting for the stone), couching cataracts, repair of hernias, and castration, the Surgeons of Preci or the Norcini, were preeminent in Europe, famous, and wealthy. Sophisticated instruments, use of cautery, knowledge of analgesics, and narcotics were passed down from father to son over 400 years: the most dextrous were summoned by crowned heads, including Charles V1 of France and Elizabeth of England. Yet, the history of their activities is almost forgotten, the resu...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - October 26, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Davidson, F. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton Bt FRCP FRS (1844-1916)
(Source: Journal of Medical Biography)
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - October 26, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Hunting, P. Tags: Anniversaries Source Type: research
Contributions of Antoine Barthelemy Clot (1793-1868): A historiographical reflection of public health in Ottoman Egypt
This paper reviews the selected historiographic and contemporary literature that discussed the medical and public health contribution of Antoine Barthélémy Clot (Clot Bey) and how these contributions shaped modern public health in Ottoman Egypt, and the major features that led to the development of the public health infrastructure of early modern Egypt based on the contributions of Clot Bey. The literature discussed the establishment of Egypt’s first modern public health and medical schools under the direct administration and guidance of Clot Bey, and his major contribution in the fields of vaccination,...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - August 3, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Aboul-Enein, B. H., Puddy, W. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Alexander Falconer Sr Seamens missionary in New Zealand, son Alexander Falconer medical superintendent for mentally ill, grandson Murray Falconer neurosurgeon
Alexander Falconer Sr (1843–1915) came from Scotland to New Zealand. A practical Christian, he set up places of relaxation for miners, sailors and soldiers; he became the Seamen’s Missionary. Son, Dr Alexander Falconer (1874–1955) trained at Otago University Medical School. As medical superintendent for the mentally ill, he urged the early introduction of psychotherapy. His son, Murray Falconer (1910–1977) was the first Nuffield Dominions Clinical Fellow, training in neurosurgery in Oxford. He was the first director of the Guy’s-Maudsley Neurosurgical Unit in London and was internationally kno...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - August 3, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Hawgood, B. J. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Merlins 'invalid or gouty chair and the origin of the self-propelled wheelchair
Wheelchairs are a major advance in enabling independence for people with walking difficulties. The first self-propelled wheelchair has been attributed to John Joseph Merlin, the ‘ingenious mechanick’, in the early 19th century and his ‘gouty chair’ is exhibited at Kenwood House. Research would suggest that comparable chairs existed in France as early as 1751 and the French Revolutionary, Georges Couthon, used one to get around Paris. A later design, also attributed to Merlin, the invalid wheelchair, features large wheels with outer hoops for the occupant to grasp and this is the true ancestor of the...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - August 3, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Weiner, M.-F., Silver, J. R. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Medical memorials of the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration
The Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration spanned the period from 1895 to 1922. Medical men who took part in the expeditions of that period made significant contributions to the expeditions in medical treatment of expedition members, geographical discovery and science and, as a result of such contributions, many had geographical features named after them. A recent paper listed five doctors from the Heroic Age who were so honoured. We now add biographical précises of a further 17 personnel, including two medical students who have geographical features named after them. (Source: Journal of Medical Biography)
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - August 3, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Guly, H., Sullivan, P., Pearn, J. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Lesser known aspects of Ludwik Flecks (1896-1961) heroic life during World War II
Professor Ludwik Fleck was a famous scientist and a prominent philosopher. Although his life and work were studied extensively, the Second World War period was a subject of some discussion and controversy. On account of his Jewish origin, he was first arrested and moved from the Lwów ghetto to the ‘Laokoon’ factory and then imprisoned in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau and in KL Buchenwald. Fleck produced the anti-typhus vaccine in the chemo-bacteriological laboratory in the Jewish Hospital at Kuszewicza Street and in the ‘Laokoon’ factory in Lwów. During his incarceration in KL Auschwitz-Birken...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - August 3, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Grzybowski, A., Ciesielska, M. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Jean Decima Jacomb (1894-1988), matron of The London Clinic, 20 Devonshire Place, London W1 from 1938 to 1949
Miss Jean Jacomb born into a wealthy family, was at the age of 22 a student nurse at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London in 1917 where she nursed convalescent soldiers from World War I. Her midwifery training was in the slums around Whitechapel where a nurses uniform and medical bag provided a safe passage in the East End of London. For a while she worked in South Africa and India and returning to UK in 1923 she progressed to appointment as matron at the now re-named Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea. In 1938 she was appointed matron to The London Clinic during the years of World War II following which in 1949 she retired at...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - August 3, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Perkins, K. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881-1925): Possible diagnoses for Gustav Klimt's Lady in Gold
One of the most famous works by the Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt and one of the most widely reproduced works of art worldwide, Adele Bloch-Bauer I which portrays the beautiful wife of Austrian magnate Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. Adele was the only woman painted by Klimt on more than one occasion. Apart from the beauty and value of the painting, the daring sea of gold that surrounds Adele and the gentle intimacy with which her fragile figure is portrayed have shrouded the history of this painting in mystery. Beyond speculation as to a special bond between artist and model, observation of the painting with a keener, cl...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - August 3, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: da Mota, L. M. H., Neubarth, F., de Carvalho, J. F., Diniz, L. R., Aires, R. B., dos Santos-Neto, L. L. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
A biography of William Tuke (1732-1822): Founder of the modern mental asylum
William Tuke was a 19th-century reformist and philanthropist notable for his work in mental health. He was known for his strict self-discipline and judicious manner. He was also a firm believer in the Quaker faith and actively supported the group and employed many of their principles in his work, especially in his chef d’oeuvre, The Retreat, established in 1792, a mental asylum in York. Possibly catalysed by the very public mismanagement of King George III's ‘madness’, he pioneered the use of moral treatment, a new humane method of treating mental illness. This focussed on allowing patients to live in a c...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - August 3, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Kibria, A. A., Metcalfe, N. H. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
The life of John Cedric Goligher (1912-1998) revisited
John Cedric Goligher was one of the great figures in British surgery. Although he practised general surgery as well, the medical community around the world elected him the pre-eminent colon and rectal surgeon of his time. Technically he was considered a master surgeon with enormous personal experience that was expressed in many papers and books written throughout his life. As the Chairman of the University Department of Surgery at the General Infirmary at Leeds, he developed many prospective controlled studies that granted him a national and international reputation. This paper aims to render him posthumous credit by remem...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - August 3, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Campos, F. G., Nahas, S. C., Cecconello, I. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
