Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: myxedema

  • George Redmayne Murray and “myxœdema”

    JMS PearceHull, England The transformation from myxedema to normal health is one of the most satisfying experiences for patient and physician that medicine has to offer. Yet until the end of the nineteenth century, the function of the thyroid gland was unknown. In the wake of Claude Bernard’s (1813–1878) term “internal secretion” in 1855 and…

  • Sir William Gull, polymath and pioneer physician

    William Gull (1816-1890) is remembered by nephrologists as one of the prominent Guy’s Hospital physicians who worked to extend the seminal observations first made by Richard Bright. These investigators worked at a time when blood measurements were not available in clinical medicine and the role of hypertension in causing disease was not appreciated. They tried…