Tag: JMS Pearce
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Sir James Paget
JMS PearceHull, England James Paget (1814–1899) is remembered for his original accounts of “osteitis deformans,” universally known as Paget’s disease of bone,1 and for his original description of Paget’s disease of the nipple, a sign of intraductal carcinoma.2 He made extensive contributions to pathology3 and to surgery.4 As a student at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, he was…
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Antecedents of Crohn’s disease
JMS PearceHull, England Crohn’s disease was described on several occasions before Crohn’s seminal publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association1 with his two colleagues in 1932. Many reports of a Crohn’s-like condition have claimed priority. Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682–1771) of Padua, the pioneer of pathological anatomy, in De sedibus, et causis morborum per…
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William Heberden
JMS PearceHull, England Virtuous and faithful HEBERDEN, whose skillAttempts no task it cannot well fulfil,Gives Melancholy up to nature’s care,And sends the patient into purer air.—William Cowper in his poem “Retirement” It is difficult to avoid eulogies of the outstanding humane compassion and clinical accomplishments, which are the hallmarks of William Heberden the elder (1710–1801).…
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Shingles
JMS PearceHull, England The physician Aretaeus of Cappadocia in the second century AD described a painful skin eruption that typically followed a band-like or “girdle-like” pattern, which corresponds to the dermatomal pattern of shingles.1 The Greek word herpein means “to creep,” and zoster (Latin cingulum) means a girdle or belt, referring to the rash’s unilateral…
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Early accounts of meningitis
JMS PearceHull, England Few illnesses convey more fear of a swift, fatal outcome than does meningitis. Cerebrospinal meningitis was once known as spotted fever, cerebrospinal fever, typhus cerebralis, or meningitis epidemica. In Greek meninx, or in Latin meningeus, is a membrane. In English literature, meninges appeared in 1543: “Whan the brayne pan is remoued, there appere two rymes,…
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John Snow
JMS PearceHull, England John Snow (1813–1858) (Fig 1) was a pioneer of modern epidemiology who almost eradicated cholera from London when, before bacteria were discovered, he showed that cholera was a waterborne infection. His vital part in ether and chloroform anesthesia is often forgotten. And, as an accomplished physician, he wrote many clinical articles about…
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Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man, a self portrait?
JMS PearceHull, England Amongst Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452–1519) unrivalled masterpieces are the Mona Lisa (c. 1503), The Last Supper (c. 1495–1498), Salvator Mundi (c. 1499–1510), and the Vitruvian Man (c. 1490). All have been subject to countless commentaries and learned descriptions.1,2 Just as the fictional works of novelists often include (albeit subconsciously) aspects of their…
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James Robinson: First anaesthetic in England
JMS PearceHull, England The dramatic benefits of ether anesthesia spread astonishingly quickly from the New World to the Old.1-3 James Robinson (1813–1862), a Guy’s Hospital trained dental surgeon, practiced at 14 Gower Street. A few doors away lived Francis Boott, an American expatriate physician. The Royal Mail steamship Acadia, on 16 December 1846, docked in…
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In memoriam: James Parkinson
JMS PearceHull, England The 21st of December 2024 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Dr James Parkinson (1755–1824), author of An Essay on the Shaking Palsy. He was buried in St. Leonard’s church where a marble plaque elegantly summarising his life and work was unveiled in September 1955. Further reading JMS PEARCE is…