Medical Biography

In spite of his contribution to psychiatry in 19th century Britain, Henry Maudsley remains a mysterious figure, a man mostly known for his donation to the London County Council for the building of the Maudsley Hospital and for The Maudsley Annual Lecture created in honour of his benevolence. Besides Sir Aubrey Lewis’ article in 1951 and Michael Collie’s attempt in 1988 to construct a biographical study on Maudsley, there does not seem to be any current endeavour to tell the story of his life, whereas Trevor Turner’s contribution to the 2004 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography gives a somewhat scathing but unattributed account of Maudsley’s personality. This essay attempts to explore his contributions to the Medico-Psychological Association (MPA), the current Royal College of Psychiatrists, his editorship of the Journal of Mental Health (currently named the British Journal of Psychiatry), his literary contributions and his vision for a psychiatric hospital. This essay is an attem...

Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany on 1 September 1939 and World War II began on 3 September. Polish nurses have their place in this difficult history. In the first months of occupation, nurses focused on caring for wounded soldiers. In order to protect them from prisoner-of-war camps and execution, nurses sought safe havens for the wounded in private homes and transported them there. After their regular jobs, the nurses visited them, changed their dressings and provided them with civilian clothes so that soldiers could eventually escape. This paper describes the work of two of these nurses, Wanda Ossowska and Stanisława Leszczyńska. The first three authors (BD, SH, AJS) were nurses in Poland at that time and they present some of the information in this paper as primary source data.

During the early twentieth century, the medical status of Mesopotamia, later Iraq, was very bad due to the lack of sanitation and recurrent epidemics and it was rife with endemic diseases including bilharziasis, tuberculosis and malaria. Medical care was poor, with few hospitals and doctors. The condition improved slowly with the return of a few Iraqi doctors who trained outside Iraq, in Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, and with the arrival of British Medical personnel, during and after the First World War, principally Sir Harry Sinderson who was one of the most influential figures in recent Iraqi medical and political history. He had the distinctive role of being one of the founders and the Dean of the first Iraqi medical college. During his service until his retirement in 1946 he achieved, with tireless effort, exceptionally high standards and brought fame and prestige to the new medical college in record time. He attained his goal of training at least 500 local doctors.

Twelve eponymously defined names died in 2020. Of these, eight names are associated with rare diseases (Tomisaku Kawasaki and Juan Rosai) or syndromes (Robert S. Jampel, Jacqueline A. Noonan, As􀃍m Cenani, Hans-Jürgen Thiel, Ann J. Johanson, and Chrysostomos P. Panayiotopoulos) of which children are primarily affected. These persons were born and practiced in diverse countries of origin including Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Turkey and the United States, and for two women, at a time when females were underrepresented within the medical profession. Their discoveries in recognizing the phenotypic characteristics of these diseases and syndromes paved the way for future genetic and molecular discoveries that led to a more profound understanding about these conditions and treatments. Novel classi􀄙 cation of disease, or surgical techniques, procedures, and instruments led to further improvements in the method for approaching disease and delivery of medical care. The four remaining eponymous names, Javier Arias-Stella, Otar T. Norwood, Anthony R. Volpe, and José María Gil-Vernet, although not rare, are deserving of mentioned given the breadth and scope of their accomplishments and contributions to medicine and science.

The Russian landscape painter Alexey Savrasov lived in the middle of the 19th century. He was overwhelmed with grief at the loss of several of his children and he used alcohol to blunt the pain and anguish. The effects of psychoactive substances and especially alcohol have been linked closely to creativity. His life story demonstrates the bitter relationship between the bottle and the muse. He became dependent on alcohol, his family broke up and he was fired from work, his creativity declined and his health deteriorated. At death, he was a lonely and a forgotten man and only two persons attended his funeral.

In 1783, Captain Samuel Turner, surveyor Samuel Davis, and
surgeon Robert Saunders journeyed from India on an embassy
through Bhutan and into Tibet. Saunders, of the Bengal
Medical Service, reported his medical observations in the
Proceedings of the Royal Society, the leading science journal of
its time. In his observations, Saunders provides glimpses into
both Bhutanese and British medical practices of the late
eighteenth century. Saunders’ description and observations of
goiter became widely quoted, helping to forge a path to the
elimination of the condition, and his explanation for the causes
of snow blindness were confirmed in laboratory experiments
more than 100 years later. Saunders not only sought to
observe and to teach, but also to learn from the local healers
he encountered. His writings show a respect for the Bhutanese
and Tibetan peoples and their medical knowledge that is rare
in colonial writings.

Summary Alexander had a profound interest in medicine and healing. Original Greek texts survive mainly from the works of Plutarch and Arrian. This paper examines original sources naming the physicians who participated in Alexander's expedition in Asia, the battle injuries he sustained and his final illness in Babylon.

As one of the last surviving members of the once illustrious medical and scientific family of Goodsir, it gives me great pleasure to add my perspective on the logarithmic (equiangular) spiral and the the importance it held for my kinsman, the esteemed Professor of Anatomy of the University of Edinburgh, John Goodsir. This short monograph will both present the Professor's investigation into the spiral in Nature, and through the use of the family Collection housed in the Centre for Research Collections of the University of Edinburgh, expound on the events surrounding the monument marking the gravesite of John Goodsir in Dean Cemetery. Consequently, I am honoured to present this work to Mr Jeremy Upton, Director of the Centre for Research Collections and Mr Malcolm MacCallum, Curator of the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh, for whose respective institutions and Collections I have the utmost personal respect and highest regard.

A medical school was founded in Constantinople in 1827. Greek medics were involved with the new school right from its foundation, mainly because they had studied in Europe and knew other European and Asian languages. This paper reviews the lives of five of them: Stefanos Caratheodory; Constantinos Caratheodory; Sarantis Archigenis; Spyridon Mavrogenis; and Marco Pitsipio (Apostolidi Pasha), who was appointed a director of the Medical School. A few of the other Greek professors are also briefly discussed.

In his recollections entitled “Looking back, 1907-1860,” Dr. John Chiene recalled Professor John Goodsir sending for him when he was on his death-bed at his residence at Wardie in 1867. After inquiring how his students were getting on, the dying Professor bade Chiene farewell with these last words, “Teach my students, Dr. Chiene,” a valediction that was to guide Chiene's future professional career.  A few days later, it was Chiene and Archibald Stirling who conducted the autopsy on Goodsir’s body after his death.  John Chiene would go on to lead a distinguished career in his own right becoming Professor of Surgery at the University of Edinburgh in 1882, a post he held for twenty-seven years.  He was one of the ablest and most potent advocates of the Listerian methods, and from the first grasped the full significance of antiseptic surgery.  Chiene’s association with the Goodsir family did not end with the death of John Goodsir, rather his friendship flourished with Joseph, Jane, and Robert Goodsir for decades.  In 1894, when Robert Goodsir executed his testament he named his old friend, John Chiene as one of his executors.  It was John Chiene who perpetuated the memory of the Goodsir family through his careful preservation of the family papers, books, and relics that can still be seen today.  I am honoured to dedicate this short work to my good friend, Mr. John Chiene, the great-grandson of the esteemed Professor of Surgery and whose friendship I cherish very dearly.  Lastly, it is my pleasure to present this work to Mr. Jeremy Upton, Director of the Centre for Research Collection, and Mr. Malcolm MacCallum, Curator of the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh, for whose respective institutions and collections I have the utmost personal respect and highest regard.

This article reviews the life and work of Sir William O'Shaughnessy Brooke (formerly Sir William Brooke O'Shaughnessy), an Edinburgh doctor of medicine and Fellow of the Royal Society who as a young doctor in London analysed the blood and excreta of cholera victims, an action which led to the first successful use of intravenous replacement therapy. His career in India was distinguished in several spheres: chemistry, pharmacology in which he introduced cannabis indica to Europe, and in the field of electric telegraphy where he became the superintendent of telegraphs for India.

In the Islamic Golden Age, medicine flourished by the practice of Persian, Arab and Greek physicians (9th to 13th century AD). Ibn rushd (1126–1198 AD) was renowned physician in that period, influenced the progress of medicine by his writings. He was the stalwart of medical sciences and owner of many writings in various fields of science. One of his writings in medicine was “ Al- Kulliyat fi Al-Tibb” (Colliget or “Generalities on Medicine”). Many of his writings were studied in every part of globe. Now a day it is need of hour to generalize his knowledge for further researches. In this paper it is trying to compile his historical aspect of life as well as writings.

Vincenz Alexander Bochdalek was a skilful and modest anatomist and pathologist who studied and worked at Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague from the 1820s to the early 1870s. He was born on 11 February 1801 in Skřipov (Austrian Silesia). In 1833 he defended his Thesis (A Guide to the Practical Dissection of the Human Brain), from the Faculty of Medicine in Prague. He worked there from 1831 as an Assistant at the Department of Anatomy and from 1837 as the first Pathological Prosector ever in the General Hospital in Prague. In 1840 he was promoted to the Associate Professorship of Pathological Anatomy and in 1845 was appointed Professor of General, Comparative and Surgical Anatomy and Head of the Department of Anatomy. His life's work contributed substantially to the birth and rise of the so-called ‘Prague medical school’. He was elected Dean of the Medical Faculty thrice. He retired in 1871 and died on 3 February 1883 in Litoměřice (Leitmeritz, Bohemia). His name is forever c...

Abu ul-Ala Shirazi, who lived around the 10th century at the Court of Amir Azud ul-Duleh Bueieh (902–951) from the Dailami Dynasty, found that arsenic, known as sam-al-far, could cure malaria. A clinical trial dating from the 10th century demonstrates Abu ul-Ala's intelligence and careful clinical observation, in the tradition of Rhazes' practice based on experimentation and clinical trial.

Abu ul-Ala Shirazi, who lived around the 10th century at the Court of Amir Azud ul-Duleh Bueieh (902–951) from the Dailami Dynasty, found that arsenic, known as sam-al-far, could cure malaria. A clinical trial dating from the 10th century demonstrates Abu ul-Ala's intelligence and careful clinical observation, in the tradition of Rhazes' practice based on experimentation and clinical trial.

Leonardo Botallo (1530–c. 1587) is widely known for the eponymous “foramen Botalli” and “ductus Botalli”. The first, most commonly named “foramen ovale”, allows blood in the fetal heart to enter the left atrium from the right atrium. The second, named “ductus arteriosus”, consists of a blood vessel in the developing fetus connecting the trunk of the pulmonary artery to the proximal descending aorta. However, Botallo was a multifaceted figure who studied many aspects of human anatomy and physiology, also making important contributions to clinical and surgical practices. Moreover, as we will see in the last section of this paper, Botallo wrote a book on medical deontology having significant features in relationship to the history of medical ethics. Botallo’s multidisciplinary approach is a typical characteristic of Renaissance physicians and scientists, who contributed to making this period a fundamental prelude to the scientific revolution of the 17th century.

Lisetta Lovett's work on Thomas Bakewell forms a valuable contribution to the canon of work on the development of new treatments for the insane at the end of the 18th century. The approach, which was practised within asylums, was known as 'Moral Therapy' or 'Moral ...

For most of the 19th century, Germany was the centre of the medical world. From there the most innovating research came and many of the physicians of that era are known to nearly every medical student and physician of today. Virchow, Kussmaul, Quincke, von Recklinghausen, Müller and Schönlein are familiar names in today’s medicine but insofar as they are merely eponyms associated with signs, symptoms, disease and anatomy. The story of their lives, their research and their influence on each other has been little examined. This is an essay about Virchow’s relationship with his mentors Müller and Schönlein and how these relationships shaped the development of Kussmaul, Quincke and von Recklinghausen as students of Virchow and their work in medicine and clinical observation after leaving Virchow’s laboratory.

An artificial organ or prosthesis is a man-made device that is implanted or integrated into a human to replace a natural organ. There were many historical steps in the development of artificial organs and prostheses. New surgical techniques, the development of prosthetic materials and the creative ideas of engineers led to progress in this field.

We aimed to acquaint the reader with a medieval physician, Amirdovlat Amasiatsi, who lived and practiced in the 15th century Anatolia. Amirdovlat wrote several books on medicine mainly focusing on phytotherapy and pharmacology using medicinal plants, animal-derived products and minerals. All his works were written in Middle Armenian, spoken Armenian language of the time. In his writings, Amirdovlat described unique recipes that represent a portrayal of medical knowledge and practice at the time in Anatolia where he lived and worked. He discussed the physical and therapeutic properties as well as geographic distributions of various plants and minerals, using different languages, mainly Turkish, Greek, Arabic, French and Persian. Amirdovlat’s works not only enhanced our understanding of Armenian medical practices but also provided great deal of information on those of Ancient Greco-Roman as well as Islamic world, demonstrating close relationship of Armenian medicine with Greco-Roman a...

Moses Wharton Young, MD, PhD (1904-1986), was an African American Professor of Neuroanatomy at Howard University College of Medicine from 1934 to 1973, during which time he authored about 100 publications on topics that included baldness, asthma, glaucoma, and, most importantly, the structure and function of the inner ear and the pathophysiology of blast injuries. Much of Young's research was ignored during his lifetime, raising the question whether this professional neglect was an instance of "academic racism."

Professor Ludwik Fleck was a famous scientist and a prominent philosopher. Although his life and work were studied extensively, the Second World War period was a subject of some discussion and controversy. On account of his Jewish origin, he was first arrested and moved from the Lwów ghetto to the 'Laokoon' factory and then imprisoned in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau and in KL Buchenwald. Fleck produced the anti-typhus vaccine in the chemo-bacteriological laboratory in the Jewish Hospital at Kuszewicza Street and in the 'Laokoon' factory in Lwów. During his incarceration in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, Fleck worked in the camp laboratory in Block 10 carrying out bacteriological studies for the inmates and then was assigned to work in the Wasserman station in Rajsko. From January 1944 Fleck performed routine laboratory tests in Block 50 in KL Buchenwald. Though Fleck had a privileged life in the camp, he participated in the sabotage activities organized by the camp resistance.

Isaak Levitan (1860-1900) was one of Russia's most influential landscape artists. He lived a very short life, only 40 years, but left more than 1000 paintings. He suffered from mood fluctuations, and died as a result of serious heart disease. After an introduction related to the issue of creativity and mental disorders, a short biography of Levitan's life is outlined, followed by some examples of his mood and behavior. A section on the mood's reflection in Levitan's professional work is followed by a description of his romantic loves and disappointments and his relationship with his contemporary Russian, the writer Anton Chekhov.

The Russian landscape painter Alexey Savrasov lived in the middle of the 19th century. He was overwhelmed with grief at the loss of several of his children and he used alcohol to blunt the pain and anguish. The effects of psychoactive substances and especially alcohol have been linked closely to creativity. His life story demonstrates the bitter relationship between the bottle and the muse. He became dependent on alcohol, his family broke up and he was fired from work, his creativity declined and his health deteriorated. At death, he was a lonely and a forgotten man and only two persons attended his funeral.

Alois Alzheimer is known for his seminal work in recognizing a form of presenile dementia. His early interests were natural history and botany. He started his medical education in Berlin and attended the universities of Wurzburg and Tübingen. Nissl and Alzheimer worked together on extensive investigation of the pathology of the nervous system, especially the anatomy of the cerebral cortex. In 1902 Emil Kraepelin invited Alzheimer to work with him in the university psychiatric clinic in Heidelberg. In 1903 both moved to work in the university psychiatric clinic in Munich. It was during these years that Alzheimer described the Alzheimer's disease. He also described brain changes in arteriosclerosis, loss of nerve cells in Huntington's disease in the corpus striatum and brain changes in epilepsy. Alzheimer presented a preliminary report of his histological findings in 1906 at Tübingen about a 51-year-old lady who had developed presenile dementia and died within four years of onset of the disease. He published his findings in 1907, reporting the atrophic brain with neurofibrillary deposits and areas in the cerebrum resistant to staining. During the later years of his career Alzheimer concentrated on the study of changes in glial cells. His best-known works from this period were on Westphal-Strümpell pseudo-sclerosis of the brain, now assumed to be the same as Wilson's Disease. His death, at age 51, was the result of cardiac failure following endocarditis.

Virtually unknown in the West, the physician Nikolai Vigdorchik is recognized in Russian-Soviet history for his role in introducing social security into Russia. He rose from Jewish working-class origins to a career that combined activism in labour rights and public health with extensive and path-breaking publications in social security, occupational safety and public health. He contributed more than 30 years of leadership to Soviet research and educational institutions devoted to occupational safety and health. Vigdorchik's 1935 publication on lead and hypertension is illustrative of his contribution to modern epidemiological methods, describing a statistical bias in the study of hospitalized patients. It predates by 11 years Joseph Berkson's paper, after whom the bias is named. Vigdorchik's life illustrates a modern-day conundrum: social activism comes with political cost -- by virtue of its evidence-based orientation, public health science is safer but both are necessary to move a culture towards health and stability.