Journal of Medical Biography最新文献

Although there had been many previous inklings, the field of xenobiotic metabolism (as we know it today) began with an experiment reported in the 1841 literature proclaiming that the ingestion of benzoic acid led to the subsequent excretion of hippuric acid in human urine. A metabolic transformation undertaken by a living organism. One worker involved in the early stages of this discovery was Wilhelm Keller, although very little information about him is readily available. Hopefully, this article will go some way to counter this dearth and also highlight Keller's pioneering contribution in the development of the fields of drug metabolism and xenobiochemistry.

Johann Alexander Vogelsang, a pioneering figure in maxillofacial surgery, played an important role in developing this field in East Germany, particularly in Dresden. Born in 1890, Vogelsang pursued dentistry against his family's wishes, studying at several German universities before his education was interrupted by the First World War. His experiences treating facial injuries during the war significantly influenced his professional focus. After the war, he worked in Dresden, advancing maxillofacial surgery and overcoming significant challenges posed by the rise of National Socialism. Despite political repression, he continued his work, later contributing to the war effort in the Second World War. Postwar, Vogelsang was instrumental in rebuilding Dresden's dental medical infrastructure and establishing educational programs. His legacy endures through the institutions he helped build and the advancements he made in the field. This article chronicles his life, highlighting his contributions to dental and maxillofacial surgery and his lasting impact on medical practice and education in Dresden.

The Indian journey of assisted reproductive therapy began in Calcutta on 3 October 1978, when Dr Subhas Mukhopadhyay discovered the technique of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) only 67 days following the birth of the world's first IVF baby, Louise Brown in the United Kingdom by Edwards and Steptoe. While Edwards won the Nobel Prize in 2010 for his groundbreaking work, Mukhopadhyay, the man behind the genesis of 'Durga', India's first IVF baby, never received any recognition. Instead, he faced severe humiliation from his peers. His colleagues and the government dismissed his claims and unable to live with dishonour and disgrace, he tragically took his life on 19 June 1981. Today his innovative techniques of cryopreservation, gonadotropin stimulation and transvaginal oocyte retrieval are used worldwide across millions of fertility clinics, helping childless couples live the dream of parenthood.

At first glance, Martin Heinrich Corten's biography appears to be the classic story of a German physician persecuted by the Nazis. Because of his "Jewish descent," Corten lost his position as a pathologist in Berlin and later his license to practice medicine. Emigration failed. But Corten was not a typical Nazi victim. In 1933, he applied for membership in the Nazi Party, and during the last two years of the war he collaborated with the Gestapo as the Hamburg representative of the "Reich Association of Jews in Germany." Although he tried to provide basic welfare and health care for Hamburg's remaining Jewish population, he was heavily involved in the deportation of Jewish citizens to concentration and extermination camps. After the war, Corten thus came into conflict with the Jewish community and lost his position as medical director of the Jewish Hospital in Hamburg. He became a "double outcast" and was unable to re-establish himself in academia. His biography, however, is a vivid example of how the line between victim and perpetrator can be blurred.

The papers from George Blair's war service as a prisoner of the Japanese in the Second World War are unusually complete. It is a valuable record because it is representative of those young doctors who provided most of the medical care in the camps, and also because the Taiwan camps are not well documented in the literature.

Catherine Chisholm BA MB ChB MD FRCP CBE (1879-1952) is celebrated as the first woman to qualify in medicine from Manchester University in 1904 and is remembered for founding the Manchester Babies Hospital in 1914 (later renamed in 1935 as the Duchess of York Hospital for Babies). She was indefatigable in her pursuit to improve the education and status of women doctors; the first woman member and president of the British Paediatric Society; first woman president of the Manchester Medical Society and was mainly responsible for establishing the Medical Women's Federation in 1917. Her career was a complex mixture of medical and social networks that linked her work as a children's physician to the Manchester Public Health Committee, Liberal politics and feminist groups. These networks played an important role in Dr Chisholm's successful career and are at the centre of this paper.

The history of social medicine in Italy between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was characterised by a marked presence of gender and the consequent commitment of women of Jewish origin to the issues of early childhood education, as well as safeguarding of work and motherhood and health prevention with regard to social and cultural fragility. Some of the roles of women engaged in social medicine campaigns have been widely studied in the historiography of medicine, having recognized their roles and commitment to attempting to create a fair society through their expertise in medicine and health. However, there are some biographies and professional lives that are still unpublished and worthy of attention by historical medical research. Lucia Servadio, who was of Jewish origin (1900-2006), was the youngest Italian doctor of the first twenty years of the twentieth century. She successfully worked, despite the degrading identification of women at the time, in the field of medicine and welfare, thanks to her qualified professional, cultural and social commitment. Dr Servadio's professionalism was constantly defined by a vision of health as a right that the doctor must protect by pursuing the goal of social equity. Precisely on the basis of these principles, solidified by the practical and social activism of women's groups of the time, Dr Servadio's professional and private life was continuously shaped between medicine and social activism. However, her story is also pervaded by the ambiguity of the role played by women, often highly educated and with considerable professional standing, engaged in forms of scientific intellectual collaboration of a conjugal nature.

Dr Graham Steell, MB CM MD FRCP (1851-1942), an Edinburgh graduate, was a physician at the Manchester Royal Infirmary (1878-1911) and professor of medicine at the Victoria Manchester University (1907-1911). He is mainly remembered for describing the 'Graham Steel murmur', however his name is also associated with the 'Graham Steell monaural stethoscope', which he designed. His clinical examination of the cardiovascular system at the bedside was meticulous, using only his stethoscope, percussion hammer, and a sphygmograph to record the radial pulse. His work is described in his monograph, Diseases of the Heart (1906) and other numerous papers. The University of Manchester Museum of Medicine and Health has a collection of monaural stethoscopes, percussors and sphygmographs. This article explores Dr Steell's clinical techniques and contribution to cardiology in an era before chest X-rays and electrocardiography, and also discusses the use of monaural stethoscopes and percussion hammers by the wider medical profession during the Victorian and Edwardian period.