Category: Physicians of Note
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Thomas Beddoes, MD (1760–1808)
Born in Shropshire in 1760 into a modest family, Thomas Beddoes was a precocious child, insatiable for books, and disinclined to participate in games. Through the help of a wise grandfather, he was introduced to a local surgeon who used him as a helper at his surgery and further stimulated his interests in books and…
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Matthew Baillie (1761–1823), anatomist and physician
Matthew Baillie. Portrait by Henry Bone, 1817. Metropolitan Museum of Art via Wikimedia. Born in Scotland in 1761, Matthew Baillie was taught to read and write at the age of five. He studied Greek and Latin at the local school, at Glasgow University (1774), and at Balliol College in Oxford (1778). In 1780, he began…
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The Foundling Hospital and Dr. Richard Mead
JMS Pearce Hull, England [Mead] physician who lived more in the broad sunshine of life than almost any man – Dr. Samuel Johnson (Boswell’s Johnson IV. 222) Fig 1. The Foundling Hospital, Holborn, London. Engraving by B. Cole, 1754, after P. Fourdrinier, 1742. Wellcome Collection. The Foundling Hospital in Lamb’s Conduit Field in…
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Fritz Mainzer and the Jewish Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt
Avi Ohry Tel Aviv, Israel Dr. Fritz Mainzer. In La Voix Juive; Organe Independant Du Judaïsme Intégral, September 22, 1932, page 3. From the collection of the National Library of Israel, courtesy of The Jewish Press in Arab Lands section. In 1961, Dr. Fritz Mainzer (1897–1961) was invited to lecture at a medical congress…
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Raynaud’s phenomenon
JMS PearceHull, England In 1862, Maurice Raynaud (1834–81) of Paris provided one of the finest descriptive accounts in clinical medicine in his doctoral dissertation on episodic digital ischemia. Yet lasting recognition came only after his death. He described twenty-five patients, twenty of whom were female, and with astonishing accuracy deduced the pathophysiology: In its simplest form,…
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Through hardship comes success—Life of Adolph Kussmaul
Hina Haq Cayon, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Caribbean Adolph Kussmaul. University of Kansas Medical Center Department of History and Philosophy of Medicine. Via Wikimedia. Adolph Kussmaul was born in Graben, Germany in 1822.1 He came from a long line of physicians and grew up in a beautiful place where miles of lush vegetation stretched…
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Sir William Osler and Oxford
Göran WettrellLund, Sweden William Osler was one of the most famous physicians and medical teachers of his time. He combined a wide knowledge of clinical medicine and science with humanity and approached patients and people in a humoristic and enthusiastic way.1 Osler has been called “the Father of Modern Medicine.” He revolutionized the teaching of…
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Ruggero Oddi: Brilliant physician and victim of gaslighting by the Congo Free State
Eli Ehrenpreis Skokie, Illinois, United States Ruggero Oddi in 1900 during his post as acting director of the Physiological Institute of Genoa. Referenced in Alexander Rollett Letter Edition, L.2629. When Ruggero Oddi (1864–1913) was a medical student at the University of Bologna, he performed studies detailing the physiology of the biliary sphincter. This work…
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Abraham de Balmes ben Meir, Jewish Italian physician and polymath
Avi Ohry Tel Aviv, Israel Abraham de Balmes ben Meir (c. 1460–1523) was a Jewish physician and polymath from the baroque Italian city of Lecce in the south of Italy, where his grandfather had served as personal physician to King Ferdinand I of Naples. He studied medicine in Naples but left in 1510 when…
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Henri Parinaud—French physician, composer, and humanitarian
Jason Jo New York, New York Henri Parinaud. Annales d’ oculistique (Paris: Dois, 1905), 320. BIU Santé Médecine, Bibliothèques d’Université Paris Cité. Via Wikimedia. Licence Ouverte / Open Licence. Henri Parinaud (c. 1844–1905), a pioneer in the fields of neurology and ophthalmology, is best remembered for his two eponymous syndromes: the Parinaud oculoglandular syndrome and…