Journal of Medical Biography current issue

Diagnostic reappraisal of disease in famous persons

Goldman, A. S, Schmalstieg, F. C — 2009-09-01

Book-collecting for medical biographers

Nieman, E. — 2009-09-01

Edgar Haydon (1859-1942): general practitioner and radium pioneer

Guy, J. M — 2009-09-01

Edgar Haydon was a general practitioner in Newton Abbot, Devon, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He introduced radium therapy to the cottage hospital in this small market town in 1914 at a time when many cities lacked this facility. He raised funds for the building of a cancer wing and an extension to the hospital that were completed in 1927. This paper describes his fund-raising efforts, some of his cases and the way in which radium treatment influenced the number of cancers treated in the hospital. The hospital's records are fragmentary and leave many questions unanswered about the practicalities of radium treatment in those early years.

George N Papanicolaou (1883-1962) MD

Frangos, C. C — 2009-09-01

Thomas Henry Osler (1875-1936): a descendant of Sir William Osler's great-uncle and the founder of a South African medical dynasty

Myers, E. D — 2009-09-01

Sir William Osler's great-uncle Benjamin emigrated from England to South Africa with his wife and children in 1820. From Benjamin's son, Stephen, descended a large family of Oslers including at least seven doctors and dentists. This paper describes the lives and careers of Thomas Henry, and his medical and dental descendants.

Notes and Jottings

2009-09-01

George Guthrie's clinical trial at the Napoleonic War Battle of Toulouse in 1814

Malhan, N. K, Greenslade, T., Mitchell, P. D — 2009-09-01

George James Guthrie (1785-1856) was a British military surgeon who came to prominence during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15). He wrote several books on military surgery and was President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England three times. However, his most innovative and important achievement has largely gone unrecognised by modern historians. In 1814, at the battle of Toulouse in the Peninsular Campaign, he performed a landmark early trial of the treatment of musket wounds to the thigh. Here we not only discuss this clinical trial and place it in its social context, but also present the pathological skeletal specimens of two wounded British soldiers who took part in it.

Venereal disease and the great

James, D G. — 2009-09-01

Jonathan Osborne (1794-1864) MD FRCPI: a crypto-neurologist

Breathnach, C. S — 2009-09-01

Jonathan Osborne was born in Dublin and educated in Trinity College Dublin, where he became Professor of Materia Medica. As physician to Sir Patrick Dun's and Mercer Hospitals he reported extensively on those patients who came under his care. In his native city he is remembered for the instruments he devised, for his studies on dropsies (particularly albuminuric nephritis), and for his therapeutic approach to epilepsy and neuralgia. It is his thorough analysis of a patient with conduction aphasia in 1833, however, which has stood the test of time.

15 Cavendish Square, London

James, D G. — 2009-09-01

Sir Hans Adolf Krebs (1900-81), pioneer of modern medicine, architect of intermediary metabolism

Leigh, F W — 2009-09-01

Krebs was born in Hildesheim (North Germany) and graduated (MD) from the University of Munich in 1923. He was assistant to Otto Warburg (1926–30) who taught tissue slicing and manometry which Krebs used to complete his three great works: The Detoxification of Ammonia (Freiburg im Breisgau 1933), The Degradation of Foods to provide Energy for Life (Sheffield 1937) and Gluconeogenesis (Oxford 1963). He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS) in 1947, Nobel Laureate in 1953 and KBE in 1958.

Guillaume Dupuytren (1777-1835) and his contracture

James, D G. — 2009-09-01

The chemistry of light: the life and work of Theobald Adrian Palm (1848-1928)

Ekpe, J. — 2009-09-01

The chemistry of light examines the work of Dr Theobald Palm. After his graduation from Edinburgh University, Palm joined the Edinburgh medical mission and was sent to Niigata in Japan where he remained for 10 years. During this time he noted the absence of rickets (a disease rife in Britain) in Japanese children and instituted a survey from which he deduced that sunlight deficiency was implicated in the aetiology of rickets. Unfortunately, he was largely ignored by the medical world. This paper seeks to contextualize his work. By placing Palm's study within a historical and social framework, its reception can be explained more easily.

Harley Street addresses and residents

James, D G. — 2009-09-01

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): a classical case of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy with lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) syndrome?

Koszka, C. — 2009-09-01

Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the most influential and profound German philosophers. After prolonged illness, he died at the age of 55 in Weimar, Germany. The interest in his medical biography has always been strong while the cause of his illness and death has remained a mystery, intriguing philosophers as well as physicians. The diagnosis of syphilis proposed in the 19th century has been controversial until today and many other diagnoses have been discussed. This paper suggests that Nietzsche suffered from mitochondrial encephalomyopathy with lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes syndrome.

Alexander's (356-323 BC) expeditionary Medical Corps 334-323 BC

Retsas, S. — 2009-09-01

Alexander had a profound interest in medicine and healing. Original Greek texts survive mainly from the works of Plutarch and Arrian. This paper examines original sources naming the physicians who participated in Alexander's expedition in Asia, the battle injuries he sustained and his final illness in Babylon.

Tuberculosis in the Ottoman harem in the 19th century

Baris, Y I., Hillerdal, G. — 2009-09-01

At least four of the sultans who ruled during the 19th century suffered from tuberculosis (TB), and probably many of the women and children in the harem too. Life there was crowded with low standards of hygiene, resulting in high mortality, especially among children. Infectious diseases were the main killers and TB was one of the many factors behind the decline and fall of the empire.

Waldenstrom's syndromes

James, D G. — 2009-09-01

James Hector (1834-1907): doctor, geologist, explorer of Western Canada

Loosmore, B. — 2009-09-01

A graduate of the University of Edinburgh, James Hector joined the Palliser Expedition of 1857 as a doctor and geologist. The objectives of the expedition were to explore the plains of North America along the 49th parallel of latitude, the recently agreed boundary between the USA and Canada, and investigate passes through the Rocky Mountains for possible railway passage. Hector's contribution was immense, his dedication and endurance contributing in large measure to the success of the venture.

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) and his medical legacy

James, D G. — 2009-09-01

Leonard Craske (1878-1950): from medical student to sculptor

Duke, M. — 2009-09-01

Leonard Craske (1878–1950), born and raised in London, England, spent two years as a medical student at St Thomas' Hospital Medical School. Following this, he worked as an actor and studied drawing and sculpting. After emigrating to the USA and settling in Boston, he became an accomplished sculptor, creating the well-known Fishermen's Memorial in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the work for which he is best remembered.

Henry Wellcome (1853-1936) and his institute

James, D G. — 2009-09-01

Medical student Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)

Skrziepietz, A. — 2009-09-01

Bertolt Brecht was one of the most important dramatists of the 20th century. At the start of his career he studied literature but switched from the humanities to medicine. This paper discusses reasons for this switch, the influence of his medical experiences on his poetic work and why he eventually abandoned his medical career. His political development towards Marxism is described and a short sketch of his theory of theatre is given. He is considered the most important German-speaking dramatist of the 20th century.

Astley Cooper's herniotome

Kirkup, J. — 2009-09-01

Tropical medicine: an illustrated history of the pioneers

Gibson, M. — 2009-09-01

Maritime Quarantine: The British Experience, ca. 1650-1900

Hardage, J. — 2009-09-01

Essays in Medical Biography

Emery, A. — 2009-09-01