Category: Physicians of Note
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Dr. Bernard Lown
Philip LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States Sudden death from cardiac dysrhythmias is a frequent consequence of acute myocardial infarction. Before the 1960s, little could be done to prevent it, and patients were usually confined to bed for several weeks. Ventricular fibrillation, the underlying cause of sudden cardiac death, was a frequent occurrence. In the 1950s, Dr.…
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Kenelm Digby, polymath and inventor of the wound salve
Sir Kenelm Digby (1603–1665) was not a physician but came close to practicing medicine. He published in 1658 a treatise called A Late Discourse … Touching the Cure of Wounds by the Powder of Sympathy. It consisted of treating dueling wounds, as proposed by Paracelsus, with a “wound salve,” a mixture of powdered earthworms, iron…
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Ignaz Troxler (1780–1866): Swiss polymath, physician, philosopher, pedagogue and politician
Jonathan DavidsonDurham, North Carolina, United States Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler (1780–1866) was an influential figure in Swiss medicine, philosophy, education, and politics, yet is scarcely mentioned in the English-speaking world. Even in Switzerland, this controversial and outspoken individual remains neglected. Brief Biographical Sketch and Events in Troxler’s Life1 Troxler was born in Beromünster in the…
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Theophile Bonet, physician and anatomist of Geneva
Theophile Bonet was a scholar and physician remembered for his extensive writings on anatomy, pathology, and clinical medicine. A successful medical practitioner for over forty years, he was familiar with both ancient and modern literature, and he published extensive notes of his studies and observations. Bonet was born in 1602 in Geneva, where his Protestant…
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Other distinguished physicians
Caton, Richard (1842–1926) – English physician, discovered in 1875 the brain’s electricity by placing direct electrodes on the exposed cortexes of cats and monkeys Dietl, Józef (1804–1878) – Austro-Polish physician, Prof. at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, described the symptom of loin pain after drinking a fluid load in patients with pelviurete Luria, Salvador (1912–1991) –…
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Tytus Chałubiński (1820–1889)
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel Tytus Chałubiński was a distinguished Polish physician, naturalist, botanist, educator, and philosopher. He was born in Radom, a town south of Warsaw where a high school and a hospital are named after him. From 1838 to 1840, Chałubiński studied medicine at the Medical-Surgical Academy in Vilnius (now in Lithuania, but at…
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John Coakley Lettsom
JMS PearceHull, England John Coakley Lettsom (aka Lettsome) MD FRCP Ed., FRS (1744–1815) is remembered as the physician who founded The Medical Society of London and for his monograph Reflections on the General Treatment and Cure of Fevers. He was born on Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands in 1744. He was sent at…
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Arvid Carlsson (1923–2018)
In the world of science, the name of the Swedish physician scientist Arvid Carlsson is inextricably linked to that of dopamine. This catecholamine, consisting essentially of a benzene ring linked to an amine, was isolated as early as 1910, but had been largely ignored as being a mere precursor of epinephrine and norepinephrine from tyrosine.…
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Walter Charleton (1619–1707)
Walter Charleton was primarily a polymath but also a distinguished medical man. He read widely; wrote on religion, physics, physiology, psychology, geology, zoology, and botany; and is the listed author of thirty printed books and four manuscripts.1 One of his biographers mentions, without further comment, that the future physician made a sudden entry into this…