Journal of medical biography
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Biography Historical Article
Dr Frederick Knight Hunt (1814-54) re-visited: medical man and journalist.
This paper studies Knight Hunt's career after he lost control of the Medical Times, and shows how he was brought to the notice of Charles Dickens who made him a sub-editor on the Daily News in 1845 and subsequently selected him as a pivotal contributor to Household Words, a post he gave up only when he became editor of the newspaper in 1851.
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Biography Historical Article
Edward Schafer (1850-1935) and artificial respiration.
In 1861 the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London set up a series of committees to examine different methods of manual artificial respiration for use in apparent drowning. In 1903 Edward Schafer, then Professor of Physiology at Edinburgh and chairman of the fourth committee, described his own prone-pressure method which, on the basis of recorded respiratory minute-volumes, was superior to other methods and subsequently was employed worldwide for nearly 50 years.
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Historical Article
The Women's Hospital Corps: forgotten surgeons of the First World War.
Under the leadership of the former militant suffragists Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson, a group of women doctors calling themselves the Women's Hospital Corps (WHC) successfully ran two military hospitals in France from September 1914 to January 1915. In 1915 the War Office invited them to run a military hospital in London where large numbers of new beds were being created. ⋯ The Endell Street Military Hospital, the first hospital in the UK established for men by medical women, was open from May 1915 to December 1919; in that time, its doctors saw 26,000 patients and performed over 7000 major operations. A key feminist organization of the First War, the WHC has largely been forgotten, partly because of its relatively small size and partly because of its anomalous status as a female-run hospital under the direct patronage of the War Office.
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Born in Ireland, Francis Martin Rouse Walshe studied medicine at University College Hospital. He subsequently practised there and at the National Hospital, Queen Square, London. Early associations with Wilfred Trotter and Sir Victor Horsley encouraged his career in Neurology. ⋯ His flare and outstanding brilliance were rewarded when he was appointed Physician to the National Hospital, Queen Square in 1921 and at University College Hospital in 1924. He published, mainly in Brain (which he edited for many years), weighty papers on the function of the cerebral cortex in relation to movements, and on neural physiology. Walshe is also remembered for his powers of literacy and stringent scientific criticism, which he often displayed with magnificent panache.
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Biography Historical Article
Dr David Maclagan (1785-1865): distinguished Military Surgeon, President of both the Royal College of Surgeons and Royal College Physicians of Edinburgh, founder of a medical and military dynasty.
Dr David Maclagan studied medicine in Edinburgh, obtaining the LRCS Edin Diploma in 1804 and graduating with the MD degree in 1805. Because he was too young to enter the army, he spent a year in London, principally at St. George's Hospital, and he gained the MRCS England Diploma in 1807. ⋯ One of his sons was appointed Archbishop of York. His eldest son followed in his father's footsteps and was also President of both Royal Colleges, of Surgeons and Physicians, in Edinburgh. His widow, Jane, and his seven sons survived him.