A note on medical metaphors
JMS Pearce Hull, England Cafe au lait patches in NF1. © 1993-2021, University of Washington, Seattle. From GeneReviews. Source. When Winston Churchill memorably referred to his bouts of depression as “black dog,” in two words he painted a picture that embraced feelings, which otherwise would have taken hundreds of words to describe. I have to […]
Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace (1815–1852)
JMS Pearce Hull, England Fig 1. Charles Babbage. Engraving from 1871. Via the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Source It is undeniable that computer science and technology play an important part in medical investigation and research, and universally in the transmission of information. Everyone remembers Charles Babbage, (1791-1871) (Fig 1) inventor of […]
Multiple sclerosis: early descriptions
JMS Pearce Hull, England Clinical MS: Augustus D’Este, McKenzie Fig 1. MS plaques, by Robert Carswell. Source It was almost two centuries ago that the best known and possibly the first detailed patient’s description of multiple sclerosis (MS) was recorded. It survives in the diaries (1822-48) and almanac of Sir Augustus D’Este, the Harrovian […]
John Hughlings Jackson
JMS Pearce Hull, England Fig 1. John Hughlings Jackson. Selected writings of John Hughlings Jackson: frontispiece. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). “. . . A man among the little band of whom are Aristotle and Newton and Darwin.” -Gustave I. Schorstein (1863-1906), physician at the London Hospital The magnitude […]
Macdonald Critchley
JMS Pearce East Yorks, England Fig 1. Macdonald Critchley by Norman Hepple. Credit: National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UCLH Arts. Source Macdonald Critchley was a neurologist of elegance and sophistication.1 He was pre-eminently a clinical investigator of disorders of higher mental functions, especially those relating to language. He was the author of many […]
Derek Ernest Denny-Brown
JMS Pearce Hull, England Figure 1: Image in the public domain. Credit: The National Library of Medicine. Source Amongst the titans of medicine, it is not easy to pick out those whose footprints will not fade with passing time. Derek Denny-Brown (Fig 1) was one. He was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. After his […]
Howard H. Tooth CB., CMG., MD., FRCP.
JMS Pearce Hull, England Fig 1. Howard H Tooth. Via Wikimedia Howard Tooth (1856-1925) was one of many physicians who served well their patients and their profession, but who would be unknown save for a syndrome that bears and perpetuates their name. Howard Tooth (Fig 1) was born in Hove, Sussex, educated at Rugby […]
William John Adie (1886–1935)
JMS Pearce Hull, England Fig 1. WJ Adie. Source William John Adie (Fig 1) deserves to be remembered as an unusually gifted, compassionate clinician and teacher, but he is best known for his account of the myotonic (Holmes-Adie) pupil. One of many talented Australians who enhanced British medicine, Adie was born in Geelong, west […]
Sir Francis Walshe MD FRS
JMS Pearce East Yorks, UK Fig 1. Portrait of F.M.R. Walshe in profile wearing Royal Army Medical Corps uniform viewing a patient in Alexandria, Egypt. “Photograph taken by Sir Victor Horsley at 17. B.G.H. [British General Hospital] Alexandria in 1915.” Credit: © The Royal Society Francis Martin Rouse Walshe (1885-1973) (Fig 1) was a […]
Plain Words, or pandemic medical gobbledygook
JMS Pearce Hull, England Fig 1: Comic featuring Plain Words The great essayist and philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) once said: “Words, when written, crystallize history; their very structure gives permanence to the unchangeable past.” I suggest that the problems posed by writers who fail to convey meaning are not new.1,2 As long ago as […]