Thomas Hodgkin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the British historian, his nephew, with the same name, see Thomas Hodgkin.
Thomas Hodgkin

Thomas Hodgkin
Born August 17, 1798
Pentonville, St. James Parish, Middlesex
Died April 5, 1866(1866-04-05) (aged 67)
Jaffa, Palestine
Nationality British
Fields pathologists
Known for preventive medicine

Thomas Hodgkin (August 17, 1798 - April 5, 1866) was a British physician, considered one of the most prominent pathologists of his time and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is now best known for the first account of Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphoma and blood disease, in 1832. Hodgkin's work marked the beginning of times when a pathologist was actively involved in the clinical process. He was a contemporary of Thomas Addison and Richard Bright at Guy's Hospital.

Contents

[edit] Life

Thomas Hodgkin was born to a Quaker family in Pentonville, St. James Parish, Middlesex. He received private education with his brother John Hodgkin, and in 1816 took a position as private secretary to William Allen.[1]

In September 1819 he was admitted to St. Thomas's and Guy's Medical School. He also studied at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1821, he went to Italy and France, where he learned to work with the stethoscope, a recent invention of René Laënnec. In 1823, Hodgkin qualified for his M.D. at Edinburgh with a thesis on the physiological mechanisms of absorption in animals. His hospital career came to an end, however, in 1837, when he clashed with the autocratic Benjamin Harrison.[1]

Hodgkin was a close friend of Sir Moses Montefiore and he accompanied him to Palestine in 1866. There he contracted dysentery and died on 4 April 1866. He was buried in Jaffa.

[edit] Works

Blue plaque in Bedford Square, London

Hodgkin described the disease that bears his name (Hodgkin's lymphoma) in 1832, in a paper titled On Some Morbid Appearances of the Absorbent Glands and Spleen.[2] He received 33 years later the eponym through the recognition of British physician Samuel Wilks, who rediscovered the disease. It is a malignancy that produces enlargement of lymphoid tissue, spleen, and liver, with invasion of other tissues. A more benign form is called Hodgkin’s paragranuloma, while a more invasive form is called Hodgkin's sarcoma.

He published as a book his Lectures on Morbid Anatomy in 1836 and 1840. His greatest contribution to the teaching of pathology, however, was made in 1829, with his two volumed work entitled The Morbid Anatomy of Serous and Mucous Membranes, which became a classic in modern pathology.

Hodgkin was one of the earliest defenders of preventive medicine, having published On the Means of Promoting and Preserving Health in book form in 1841. Among other early observations were the first description of acute appendicitis, of the biconcave format of red blood cells and the striation of muscle fibers.

[edit] Legacy

Tombstone of Thomas Hodgkin in Jaffa, Israel

There is a blue plaque on his house in Bedford Square, London. The Friends' School, Hobart named one of the four school houses after him.

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Kass, Amalie M., "Hodgkin, Thomas", on the website of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (subscription or UK public library membership required), http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/13429 
  2. ^ "On Some Morbid Appearances of the Absorbent Glands and Spleen". Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, 17, 1832, 68–114. Full text at PMC: 2116706

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Hodgkin&oldid=466994925"
Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages