Tag: Cardiology
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Paul Wood: In memoriam
George DuneaChicago, Illinois, United States Dr. Paul Wood, the greatest British cardiologist of his time, died in London on July 13, 1962—half a century ago.1 Born in 1907, he went to school in Australia, took his internship in New Zealand, and after a stint as cardiologist in London, served with distinction in World War II.…
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Clifford Allbutt
Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt (1836-1925) was an immensely influential British physician who spanned the transition from Victorian to modern medicine, a Renaissance man who helped advance our understanding of disease in many different areas. He is especially remembered for his work on hypertension and cardiac disease, writing as he was at a time when it…
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Sir Thomas Lewis: The promise of electrocardiography
In republishing an account of clinical electrocardiography, I do so from conviction that this method of examination is essential to the modern study of heart disease. When some twenty-seven years ago I began to study disorders of the heart with the aid of the “string galvanometer” the method was in its early infancy and unknown…
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Sir James Mackenzie (1853–1925)
James Mackenzie was a prominent and highly influential British physician who made great contributions to the understanding of cardiac diseases, especially of atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias. He was “at heart” a generalist, having spent 28 years as a general practitioner and after a decade in London returning to his roots in Scotland to study…
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Jean Corvisart: Napoleon’s physician
An outstanding diagnostician and pioneer in cardiology, Jean Nicolas Corvisart de Marets has been called the founder of French clinical medicine. He advocated the careful clinical examination of the heart, described syndromes and signs of heart disease that to this day still bear his name, and popularized percussion of the chest as a diagnostic tool,…
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William Withering and the foxglove
In 1785 William Withering, physician and botanist in Birmingham, England, wrote a book describing how for ten years he had used an extract of foxglove to treat patients afflicted with swollen legs and abdomen. He said he had often been urged to write on this subject and had been rather diffident about it, feeling unqualified…
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The stethoscope
Fiona RobertsonScotland, United Kingdom One of the most iconic tools of the medical profession is the stethoscope. Here we see René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec, a French physician, using his prototype monoaural stethoscope. It was a wooden cylinder one inch and a half in diameter, one foot long, and tapered at the end like a funnel. This embryonic…
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The heart of Giselle
Emily BoyleDublin, Ireland The ballet Giselle may be one of the most sublime examples of the art form. Rightfully a classic, it forms a staple part of the repertoire and is performed on a regular basis worldwide. It is certainly a ballet of two halves, with the rustic, earthy, narrative-driven first half providing an absolute…
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Auscultation
Daly WalkerBoca Grande, Florida, United States In the hospital’s x-ray department, Dad and I entered a small room with a wall of lighted boxes. A man with dyed reddish hair sat, sipping at a mug of coffee and reading a magazine called The American Spectator. “Harry,” Dad said. “Meet my son, Bud. Bud, this is…