Social contract of academic medical centres to the community: Dr Howard Atwood Kelly (1858-1943), a historical perspective
Academic medical centres have traditionally been bastions of teaching and research. Outreach to the community at large and involvement in community affairs have sometimes been lacking in the overall mission and activities of academic medical centres. This paper provides an historical perspective first on the numerous achievements of a physician and surgeon and then on the topic of involvement in community affairs by reviewing the many contributions of America’s pioneer gynaecological surgeon and one of the four physician founders of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and School of Medicine in 1889 – Dr Howard Atwood Ke...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Allen, P. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Levi Myers (1767-1822): An eighteenth century Glasgow medical graduate from South Carolina
Levi Myers, a native of Georgetown, South Carolina, was the first Jewish medical graduate at the University of Glasgow, obtaining the MD, in 1787. Myers had been registered for studies at the University of Edinburgh for three years, from 1785/1786 to 1787/1788, after some years of training with a physician in Charleston, South Carolina. Recent studies of Jewish life in Edinburgh have revealed the evidence of a settled group of Jewish inhabitants in the city during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, during the time of Myers’ sojourn in Edinburgh and thirty years before the formal inauguration of Scotland&rsqu...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Collins, K. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Healing bodies or saving souls? Reverend Dr Peter Parker (1804-1888) as medical missionary
The important role played by medical services in the preaching of the Gospel in China was undeniable. Anglo-American missionaries entered Canton in the early 18th century and introduced modern Western medicine to China. Reverend Dr Peter Parker, founder of medical missionaries to China, was more than that, far more advanced than his predecessors including Drs Pearson, Livingstone and Colledge. He was an enthusiastic missionary of exceptional ability and vigour as witnessed his labours at the Canton Ophthalmic Hospital. His 20 years in the medical field unexpectedly paved the way for his future career as a diplomat in the A...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Fu, L. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Alberto Urrets-Zavalia Jr (1920-2010): An Argentinian contributor to ophthalmology
Alberto Urrets-Zavalía Jr was born in Córdoba (Argentina) in 1920. Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology of the National University of Córdoba and founder of the Cornea and Glaucoma Surgical Center in the same city, in 1956 he created the first residency programme in Ophthalmology in his country. He founded the first Eye Bank and introduced one of the first argon laser photocoagulators in South America. He authored around 200 scientific presentations and publications, describing new findings and clinical entities. Thus, his individualisation of the cyclovertical component in strabismus contribute...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Grzybowski, A., Urrets-Zavalia, J. A., Ascaso, F. J. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Treatment of singultus by sexual stimulation: Who was George T Dexter, MD (c1812-?)?
This short report attempts to shed light on the interesting but controversial personality of George T Dexter (ca1812 -?), the physician who first described manipulation of the female genitalia in a hysterical impressionable girl as being associated with the termination of singultus. Although his interaction with the young female patient would not meet today's ethical standards, his medical observation was valid and contributes to our understanding of the pathophysiology of singultus. He was well ahead of his colleagues who presented hiccup therapy case reports with similar or related pathophysiology mechanisms some 150 yea...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Petroianu, G. A. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
The four medical theses of Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843)
Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homoeopathy, over a period of 33 years wrote four medical theses at three different universities. The first, in 1779 at the University of Erlangen, Franconia, dealt with agents that allegedly induce spasms, granting him a MD degree. The second two theses in 1784 dealt with obstetrical matters and were imposed upon him by the University of Wittenberg, Saxony, for becoming a medical officer, a position he apparently aspired to mostly for financial reasons. The fourth thesis in 1812 at the University of Leipzig, Saxony, his most elaborate dissertation on a toxic plant, white hellebore, served ...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Lang, C. J. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Catholic unionism and heterodoxy in Irish Victorian Medicine: A biography of Thomas More Madden (1838-1902)
It is not easy to précis the life of gynaecologist and obstetrician Thomas More Madden. Aside from his prolific penmanship and championing of societal issues, a study of his life serves to demonstrate the crossroads at which orthodox medicine stood during the late nineteenth century – a period of transition between ‘heroic’ and modern health care. Reflecting this state of flux, Madden wrote several books about childbirth but he was also interested in heterodox subjects including heliotherapy and hydrotherapy. His political beliefs were no less eclectic. On one hand he was a Catholic ‘Unionist...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Kennerk, B. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Agop Handanian (1834-1899): Forensic medicine Professor in Imperial School of Medicine
(Source: Journal of Medical Biography)
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Yildirim, R. V. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Ibn al-Haytham (965-1039 AD), the original portrayal of the modern theory of vision
In this study we review Ibn al-Haytham's life and introduce his major contribution to the field of ophthalmology, his theory of vision. (Source: Journal of Medical Biography)
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Daneshfard, B., Dalfardi, B., Nezhad, G. S. M. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Norman Barrett (1903-1979): Unorthodox pioneer of thoracic and oesophageal surgery
It is an interesting quirk of medical history that the legacy of Norman Barrett most ostensibly lies in the name of a disease the he was quite emphatically wrong about, at least when he first described it. Indeed, there are those who argue to remove the eponym in favour of the title ‘Columnar Lined Epithelium’, in part because of what little Barrett actually had to do with the correct initial characterisation of this disease. Yet the sum of Norman Barrett’s contributions to modern medicine is much more than a mistaken characterisation of a pathological process. Barrett was truly a pioneer of chest surgery...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Edison, E., Agha, R., Camm, C. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) and the medical world
Elizabeth Gaskell had several relatives who were doctors, two of whom became well known, and she met many practitioners and specialists. This led to interesting portraits of doctors in her novels and also leads to speculation as to why she includes some real individuals and certain diagnoses and why she gave herself a poor prognosis. (Source: Journal of Medical Biography)
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Ross, J. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Truncated ambition: Thomas King Chambers, MD (1817-1889)
Thomas King Chambers clearly intended to be a physician of note and at times indeed he was mentioned in the same breath as Sir James Paget (1814–1899), Sir Henry Acland (1815–1900) and Francis Anstie (1833–1874). At the time of his death his career was pronounced ‘less than brilliant though far from inglorious’. He had made all the right political moves—networking through the medical societies, marrying well and even accompanying the Prince of Wales on his first foreign tour. He wanted to be more than a society doctor, however: he published his clinical lectures and original research, pr...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Drain, S. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Doreen Norton OBE, MSc, SRN, FRCN (1922-2007): Pioneer who revolutionised pressure sore management and geriatric nursing to international acclaim
Doreen Norton was a delightful, widely respected nurse who devoted her life to improving the care of elderly people. She researched the neglected problem of pressure sores, revolutionised their nursing care, and thus achieved international fame. Her Pressure Sore Scale was established as a management tool and is still used today. She was a key member of the design team that produced the ‘King’s Fund Bed’, researched equipment required on geriatric wards, assessed all geriatric long stay units in Scotland and established research as a valuable nursing tool within her profession and health authorities. She ...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Denham, M. J. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
Akhawayni (?-983 AD): A Persian neuropsychiatrist in the early medieval era (9th-12th Century AD)
The early medieval era is also called the Islamic Golden Age because of the significant rise in sciences, including medicine. Abū Bakr Rabi’ ibn Ahmad Akhawayni Bukhāri (better known as Akhawayni) was one of the notable medical practitioners in his lifetime. His fame was in neuroscience and he became known as Pezeshk-e-Divanegan (Physician to the Insane). His only surviving book, Hidāyat al-Muta’allimin fi al-Tibb (The Students’ Handbook of Medicine), is the first medical textbook in Persian, after Islam. Akhawayni gathered and categorized available knowledge on neuropsychiatry and ad...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Zargaran, A., Kordafshari, G., Hosseini, S. R., Mehdizadeh, A. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
John Alexander Sinton, MD FRS VC (1884-1956)
Brigadier John Sinton is the only individual in history to have been both awarded the Victoria Cross and also elected to the Royal Society. He qualified at Belfast and afterwards joined the Indian Medical Service (IMS). Serving before and during the Great War (1914–18), he was first posted to the North-West Frontier province, and afterwards as a captain in the Indian Expeditionary force in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). It was there in 1916 that, shot in both arms during an engagement and under heavy gunfire, he remained steadfastly at his post; for this bravery he received the Victoria Cross. Following the war he carried o...
Source: Journal of Medical Biography - June 2, 2016 Category: History of Medicine Authors: Cook, G. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research
