Some notable names in renal medicine from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.
ABERCROMBIE John (1780–1844)
Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Abercrombie moved from successful
general practice into the Royal Public Dispensary as a consultant and was appointed
physician to the King in Scotland.
ALISON William Pulteney (1790–1859)
President of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh and a contemporary of Sir
Robert Christison both sharing an interest in renal disease. Richard Bright stayed
with him during a visit to Edinburgh. He was better known for his Observations on
the management of the poor in Scotland (1840).
ANDERSON John (d. 1883)
Clinical Clerk at Guy's Hospital. Read a paper on renal dropsy, illustrated by cases
and a dissection, before the Senior Physical Society of Guy's, 7 February 1835. The
paper was published in the London Medical Gazette, 1835, vol. xv (nos. 25 and 26).
ANDRAL Gabriel (1797–1876)
Professor of General Pathology at the Paris Medical School, member of the Académie
Royale de Médecine and member of staff of l'hôpital de la Charité. Andral was an outstanding
pioneer of haematology—the publication in 1843 of his Essai d'hématologie pathologique
was a landmark in the scientific study of the subject.
BAILLIE Matthew (1761–1823)
Scots nephew of John and William Hunter, who, following Morgagni, wrote a fine textbook.
He was one of the first to understand that post-mortem appearances were end-results
of a disease process. He differentiated renal cysts.
BAILLOU Guillaume de (BALLONIUS) (1538–1616)
Paris graduate and physician to the household of Henry IV. He was regarded by Francis
Graham Cruikshank as the founder of epidemiological studies. Described whooping cough
(quinta) for the first time, also introduced the term “rheumatism”.
BARBIER Jean-Baptiste Grégoire (1776–1855)
Student at Amiens where he later worked. Awarded doctorate in Paris. Member of the
Medico-Botanical Society of London.
BARLOW Edward (1785–1848)
Physician to the Bath United Hospital and to the Bath Infirmary. His work was written
up in Midland Medical and Surgical Reporter, 1832; see also Diana Berry and Cameron
Mackenzie, Richard Bright, 1789–1858, London, Royal Society of Medicine Services,
1992, pp. 158, 160.
BAUDELOCQUE César-Auguste (1795–1851)
He studied in both Amiens and Paris. Aggregated in surgery 1824, then worked as a
doctor at l'hôpital des Enfans Malades.
BELLINI Lorenzo (1643–1704)
Evaporated urine and found that the colour, taste and odour were due to variations
between water and solids.
BLACKALL John (1771–1860)
An Exeter physician and, like W. C. Wells, described the association of coagulable
urine, dropsy and renal disease in 1813, paving the way for Richard Bright's conclusive
work in 1827.
BOERHAAVE Hermann (1668–1738)
Founder of the “Electic School” and the greatest physician and teacher of his period
making contributions to all aspects of medicine. His reputation was world-wide, which
was remarkable in a time when communications between continents were virtually unknown.
His work Methodus studii medici was extensively translated. He built on the observations
of Bellini, measuring the specific gravity of urine using a primitive barometer. In
1720 he described urea, which was later isolated by Hilaire Marin Rouelle in 1771.
BONET Théophile (1620–89)
Collected all post mortems performed from the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries and
published them in Sepulchretum. It is recorded that he translated the first medical
periodical into Latin as the Zodiacus medico gallicus in 1680–85.
BOSTOCK John (1772–1846)
He gave up clinical medicine for biochemistry and worked closely with Richard Bright
at Guy's Hospital on the changes found in blood and urine in nephritis. He was the
first to describe hay-fever from which he suffered.
BOUILLAUD Jean-Baptiste (1796–1881)
He established a link between heart disease and acute articular rheumatism: the law
of coincidence. He linked aphasia with lesions of the front lobes of the brain.
BOWMAN Sir William (1816–92)
Although best known for his work on the eye, he nevertheless established in 1842 the
theory that renal tubules were responsible for secreting urine formed after the Malpighian
bodies had separated the watery portions from the blood and thus paved the way towards
understanding glomerular filtration.
BRANDE William Thomas (1788–1866)
The Brande family were apothecaries to George III. Brande was elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society in 1809. In 1812 he became Superintendent of Chemical Operations
at Apothecaries Hall and the following year succeeded Humphry Davy as Professor of
Chemistry at the Royal Institution.
BRIGHT Richard (1789–1858)
Third son of a wealthy Bristol merchant and banker, Bright studied medicine at Edinburgh
in 1808. From 1810–12 he continued his medical studies at Guy's Hospital, London,
returning to Edinburgh in 1812 to complete his doctoral thesis. He spent most of his
working life at Guy's Hospital and his many works on renal disease, including his
magnum opus, Reports of medical cases, published in 1827, earned him the title “Father
of Nephrology” and the eponym “Bright's disease” for the condition known as albuminous
nephritis.
BUREAU J.V. (*dates n.a.)
Originally from Lyons, he was an intern of the Paris hospitals, student of the École
Pratique and member of the Society of Anatomy. His inaugural thesis (1837) was entitled
De la néphrite albumineuse ou maladie de Bright, affection granuleuse des reins. He
was a member of Rayer's team.
BURROWS Sir George (1801–87)
Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge. He also studied in Paris and Pavia. Goulstonian
Lecturer 1834. Clinical Clerk at St. Bartholomew's to Peter Latham and Physician Extraordinary
to Queen Victoria in 1870. His chief publication was On disorders of the cerebral
circulation (1846).
CHAPOTIN Charles (*dates n.a.)
The author of Topographie médicale de l'Île de France, Paris, 1812.
CHRISTISON Sir Robert (1797–1882)
President of the Royal College of Physicians in 1838–40 and 1846–8, he was, in some
circles, better known for his work on medical jurisprudence but in fact was one of
the first to confirm Richard Bright's findings concerning the kidney.
COPLAND James (1791–1870)
From Orkney, a great compiler and one of the early polyhistorians, he wrote a three
volume Dictionary of practical medicine (1844–58). He was a Fellow of the Royal College
of Physicians.
CORFE George (*dates n.a.)
In addition to his renal work, A popular treatise on the kidney (1839), he completed
The physiognomy of diseases in 1849.
CORRIGAN Sir Dominic John (1802–80)
Wrote extensively on famine, fever and cholera in Ireland but is best remembered for
his original description of aortic incompetence. In addition to his work on the heart
he also held strong views on the kidney.
COTUGNO Domenico (1736–1822)
Professor of Anatomy at Naples, 1776. Cotugno was one of Italy's most distinguished
scientists—a clinician, anatomist and man of letters. He was perhaps the first to
report albumin in a typical case of acute nephritis with anasarca and large quantities
of “ovi albumini persimilem” in the urine, although he did not elaborate on the discovery.
CRAIGIE David (1793–1866)
Worked with Sir Robert Christison, in 1861 became President of the Royal College of
Physicians in Edinburgh. His publications include: Elements of general and pathological
anatomy (1828) and Elements of the practice of physic (1836).
CRAMPTON John (1773?–1840)
Honorary Fellow of the King's and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland. Worked
at Dr. Steeven's Hospital, Dublin. Wrote an account of the fever epidemic in Dublin
September 1817 to August 1819.
CRUICKSHANK William (d. 1810/11)
Ordnance Chemist and Lecturer in Chemistry (1795) at the Royal Artillery Academy at
Woolwich and Surgeon of Artillery and Surgeon to the Ordnance Medical Department.
He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1802. At Woolwich he worked under
Surgeon-General John Rollo who, in 1797, published An account of two cases of the
diabetes mellitus, which incorporated Cruickshank's research on diabetes and urine
analysis. This William Cruickshank is often confused with William Cumberland Cruikshank
(1745–1800), the anatomist and surgeon who demonstrated albuminuria in dropsical fevers.
He ran the Great Windmill Street School with Matthew Baillie after the death of William
Hunter. It appears that after their deaths the two were amalgamated into one William
Crui(c)shank—the surgeon and chemist at the Woolwich Arsenal disappeared without trace.
DARWALL John (1796–1833)
Physician to the Birmingham Dispensary.
DARWIN Erasmus (1731–1802)
Grandfather of Charles Darwin and best known for his work on the embryology of plants.
He published Zoonomia in 1794. He worked with William Withering on the use of digitalis
in cardiac dropsy.
DESIR A. (*dates n.a.)
A student of Rayer, his inaugural thesis was entitled De la présence d'albumine dans
l'urine considerée comme phénomène et comme signe dans les maladies (1835).
DOBSON Matthew (1732–84)
Graduated MD from Edinburgh in 1756. In 1770 he was appointed physician at Liverpool
Infirmary where he became a pioneer in medical research. He was the first to describe
sugar in the urine and blood of diabetics and wrote on renal stones.
DODOENS Rembert (1517(?)–85)
Belgian physician to Maxilliam II and Rudolph II and best known for his herbal remedies.
DUPUYTREN Guillaume (1777–1835)
Surgeon-in-Chief at l'Hôtel Dieu in Rayer's time. Duypuytren was a brilliant surgeon,
diagnostician and teacher but also, like many of the nineteenth-century “greats”,
had a breadth of interests including physiology and pathology. Not an easy man, he
was known as the “brigand of l'Hôtel Dieu” and “the first of surgeons and the least
of men”.
ELLIOTSON John (1791–1868)
Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine at University College London
and, although best known as the first surgeon to use hypnotism for surgical operations,
he also contributed to the great renal controversy.
FERNEL Jean (c.1497–1558)
A Paris graduate and one of the greatest physicians of the Renaissance. He became
physician to Henry II. He was one of the first to examine medicine in an analytical
way and contributed to the best classification of disease between Galen and Platter.
He is said to have corrected many Galenic errors, opposed excessive bloodletting and
post-mortem studies.
FORDYCE George (1736–1802)
Described “miliaria” (putrid) fever in 1758.
FOREEST Pieter van (1522–97)
Born in Alkmaar, Foreest studied at the University of Louvain. He then went to Bologna
where he received his doctorate in 1543. He began practising medicine in Pithiviers,
then moved to Delft where he became “Médecin de la Ville”. He cured the Prince of
Orange of many diseases and gave the opening lecture of the Chair of Medicine at the
inauguration of Leiden University.
FORGET Charles Polydore (1800–61)
Originally from Strasbourg, Forget worked with Gabriel Andral in the field of haematology,
notably on the “buffy coat” that formed in the blood under certain conditions. Together
Andral and Forget made a plea for a revival of a modified form of humorism, believing
that many general phenomena could best be explained by studying variations in body
fluids.
FOURCROY Antoine-François de (1755–1809)
Medical chemist and pharmacist analysing urinary calculi and blood. Although a friend
of A. L. Lavoisier he was unable to save him from the guillotine during the Terror.
He translated the works of Bernardino Ramazzini, the father of industrial health.
His dictum was “Read little, see much, do much”, which was later appropriated by Philippe
Pinel and Jean-Nicolas Corvisart.
FRANK Johann Peter (1745–1821)
Author of Traité de médecine pratique, French translation by J M Goudareau, Paris,
1820–1828.
GENEST Jean-Louis (*dates n.a.)
A student of Rayer, he wrote an article on the perceived wisdom with regard to kidney
diseases known under the term “maladie de Bright”. After qualifying as a doctor in
1827 he became Clinical Head at l'Hôtel Dieu. From 1832 to 1838 he was involved in
the publication of the Gazette Médicale de Paris.
GLUGE Gottlieb (1812–98)
Originally from Brussels, Gluge examined the kidney microscopically and, contemporaneously
with Gabriel Valentin, Joseph Toynbee and Rayer, described changes in the Malpighian
bodies, i.e. glomeruli leading to the realization of the presence of different histological
appearances in nephritis.
GMELIN Leopold (1788–1853)
From Gottingen, he confirmed William Prout's finding that gastric juice acid was free
hydrochloric acid and detected bile in the urine using nitric acid.
GRAVES Robert (1796–1853)
Was the chief physician at Meath Hospital, Dublin, and, apart from his description
of the thyroid disease that bears his name, he worked extensively on the kidney, disagreeing
with both Rayer and Richard Bright on several points.
GREGORY James Craufurd (1800–32)
It appears that he was not a member of the well-known academic Gregory family but
he was clearly a very fine physician and his death at such a young age was a blow
to medical science. His inaugural thesis De hydrope acuto was written in 1824. He
had an Edinburgh University post as Physician in Ordinary to the Infirmary in 1828.
GUERSENT Louis Benoît (1777–1848)
Worked in Paris at l'hôpital des Enfans Malades and published extensively on renal
disease in children.
GUILLEMIN Vincent-Victor (*dates n.a.)
Presented his medical thesis ‘Essai sur la maladie de Bright’ at Strasbourg in 1837.
HAMILTON George (*dates n.a.)
In 1833 he is described by the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal as “Extraordinary
member and lately President of the Edinburgh Hunterian Medical Society”. He was the
author of ‘On the epidemic scarlatina and dropsical affection which prevailed in Edinburgh
during the autumn of 1832’, Edin. med. surg. Journ., 1833, vol. 39, and ‘On the treatment
of scarlatina anginosa’, ibid., 1837, vol. 47.
HELMONT Jean-Baptiste van (1577–1644)
Belgian founder of the Iatrochemical School, explaining the importance of the soul
in medicine. He was the first to introduce gravimetric measurement into medical analysis
and actually weighed twenty-four-hour specimens. As an early physician-chemist he
recognized the importance of gas and was the first to use the expression in a medical
context. He made the first enquiry into the composition of urine (until then urine
examination was based on appearance only). He compared the weight of urine against
rainwater and was aware that the young could concentrate their urine more than the
old and that dehydration increased the weight of urine.
HEURNE Jan van (1543–1601)
He was a pioneer of medical education. With his son Otto, he introduced bedside teaching
of medical students in Leiden. This replaced lectures in Latin accompanied by prescriptions
for the students to copy down slavishly.
HOFFMANN Friedrich (1660–1742)
From Halle. Hoffmann wrote on medical ethics in his Medicus politicus and produced
an eponymous anodine; was said to have only twenty cadavers for post mortem in twenty
years. He was best known for his theory of disease conditions described as “tonic”
and “atonic”.
HOME Francis (1719–1813)
Working in Edinburgh, he noted the sweetness of urine in diabetes. He served as a
surgeon in the Dragoons in the War of the Austrian Succession and while in Flanders
he attended lectures at Leiden Medical School in the tradition of the renowned physician
Hermann Boerhaave.
HOWSHIP John (1781–1841)
Wrote practical observations on diseases of urinary organs, also on ovarian dropsy,
published as Practical observations in surgery, and morbid anatomy, 1816.
KÜHN Carl G. (1754–1840)
From Leipzig. Kühn edited books in the early nineteenth century and also tabulated
Galen's citations.
LATHAM John (1761–1843)
Wrote on rheumatism and gout, as well as diabetes.
LATHAM Peter Mere (1789–1875)
He worked at both St. Bartholomew's and the Middlesex hospitals. He was Goulstonian
Lecturer in 1819 and in later life Physician Extraordinary to Queen Victoria. Latham
was best known for his lectures on clinical medicine, particularly diseases of the
heart. Sir Thomas Watson said Latham's publications “marked an era in the clinical
teaching of this country”.
LE POIS Nicolas (1527–90)
De congnoscendis et curandis praecipue internis humani corporis morbis libri tres
was first published in 1580.
LIEBIG Justus von (1803–73)
Pupil of J.L. Gay-Lussac, brought organic chemistry to the study of medicine and introduced
the concept of metabolism. He tried to refute ideas of fermentation, inferring that
all reactions in the body had to be chemical in origin.
LIEUTAUD Joseph (1703–80)
Physician to Louis XV and then Louis XVI, Lieutaud was the first to teach topographical
anatomy. He was one of the earliest writers of books on surgical anatomy, publishing
his Essais anatomiques in 1742, and Historia anatomico-medica in 1767.
LITTRÉ Émile (1801–81)
The greatest medical lexicographer of the nineteenth century, he dismissed all theological
and metaphysical dogma noting that real advances in medicine would depend on physical
and chemical procedures. He was probably the first to describe polycystic kidney disease.
MALPIGHI Marcello (1628–94)
He was, as a result of his microscopic slide, the father of histology and amongst
many other first descriptions he observed Malpighian bodies, i.e. the glomeruli of
the kidney.
MARTIN SOLON Ferdinand (1795–1856)
Member of the Académie Royale de Médecine in Paris, aggregate of the Faculty of Medicine
of l’hôpital Beaujou, laureate of l'Ecole Pratique, Martin Solon worked at l'Hôtel
Dieu as chef de clinique. His work on nephrology included a treatise entitled Traité
de l'albuminurie ou hydropisie causée par les maladies des reins. The one-volume work,
published in 1838, included five coloured plates of diseased kidneys.
MATEER William (*dates n.a.)
He graduated MD from Edinburgh in 1831 with a thesis entitled ‘De analogia legum physiarum
et vitalium’. He became Physician to the Belfast Fever Hospital. In 1836 he was appointed
to the Chair of Botany of the Medical School of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.
MONASSOT Jacques (*dates n.a.)
Reported on cases of albuminous nephritis while working with Rayer and others at l'hôpital
de la Pitié and wrote Etudes sur la granulation des reins, Paris, 1835. He opposed
J. C. Sabatier's theories.
MORGAGNI Giovanni Battista (1682–1771)
A pupil of Antonio Maria Valsalva and Professor of Medicine in Padua; he is said to
have made pathology a genuine branch of modern medicine.
NYSTEN Pierre Hubert (1771–1818)
Doctor of Medicine, Professor of Materia Medica, correspondent of the Academy of Science
of Turin and of the Royal Society of Medicine of Barcelona amongst other honours,
Nysten wrote a medical dictionary that was revised and enlarged by Emile Littré from
1821 onwards reaching its 21st edition in 1905.
OSBORNE Jonathan (1795–1864)
Physician to the Clinical Hospital of Sir Patrick Dun, Dublin. He was the founder
of Irish nephrology and first described renal vein thrombosis in the nephrotic syndrome
in his book On dropsies of 1835.
PLATTER Felix (1536–1614)
One of the first to describe deaths in infants from thymus disease; his Praxeos medicae
(1602–8) was an early attempt at systematic classification of disease.
PLOUCQUET Wilhelm Gottfried (1744–1814)
Like William Cullen, he was a classifier of disease.
PORTAL Antoine (1742–1832)
Founder of the Académie Royale de Médecine in Paris (1820); known for his extensive
history of anatomy and surgery (1770).
PROUST Joseph Louis (1754–1826)
Discovered “rosaceous acid” in the urine in 1797; this same substance was later described
by William Prout in 1819 as a “purpurate”.
PROUT William (1785–1850)
One of the greatest of the early biochemists as well as a physician, he devoted a
great part of his time to the study of urine. He worked closely with John Elliotson
as both were on the staff of the United Hospitals of St. Thomas's and Guy's.
RIVIÈRE Lazare (1589–1655)
Professor of Medicine at Montpellier and a well-known teacher and physician throughout
Europe; he introduced chemistry in medical teaching. Some of his treatment regimes
were popularized by Nicholas Culpepper in England.
SABATIER J. C. (d. 1837)
Attached to Rayer's division as an intern; published several observations collected
whilst in Rayer's service including ‘Considerations et Observations sur l'hydropisie,
symptomatiques d'une lésion speciale des reins’, Archives Générales de Médecine, second
series, 1834, vol. v, pp. 333–89. He wrote on other case histories gathered at l'hôpital
des Enfans Malades.
SAUVAGES François Boissier de (1706–1767)
From Montpellier, he translated the Revd Stephen Hales's work on arterial pressure
and renal calculi.
SCHENCK VON GRAFENBERG Johannes (1530–98)
His Observationum medicarum (1584–97) was one of the great early collections of medical
cases and a source book for the work of later writers such as Franciscus Sylvius.
SCUDAMORE Sir Charles (1779–1849)
He wrote a treatise on gout in 1816.
SEYMOUR Edward James (1796–1866)
Physician at St. George's Hospital and was considered one of the most distinguished
of the staff, being an able physician and a good teacher. He is remembered for his
work on diseases of the ovaria and the medical treatment of insanity. He wrote on
the nature and treatment of dropsy and also translated F. G. Geromini on dropsy.
SPITTAL Robert (1804–52)
He was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh having graduated from
Gressen in 1834. He was one of the earliest exponents in Edinburgh of Laënnec's auscultation.
He is buried at Greyfriars.
SWIETEN Gerard van (1700–72)
Although from Leiden, he revitalized the old “Vienna School” and as an army surgeon
wrote on camp hygiene amongst troops. He wrote commentaries on Hermann Boerhaave's
aphorisms.
SYDENHAM Thomas (1624–89)
Was a Puritan Captain of the Horse in the Civil War before turning to medicine. He
is best remembered for his first-hand accounts of common diseases, including gout,
scarlatina and, of course, his eponymous chorea. He made contributions to the understanding
of dropsy.
THÉNARD Louis Jacques (1777–1857)
Studied the composition of bile and discovered hydrogen peroxide in 1819.
TISSOT Edouard (*dates n.a.)
Author of De l'hydropisie, causée par l'affection granuleuse des reins, Paris, 1833.
TISSOT Simon-André (1728–97)
A well-known physician from Lausanne who wrote a popular medical textbook on diseases
of men of the world.
VALENTIN Gabriel (1810–83)
An early microscopist he discovered the cell nucleolus in 1836 going on later to report
on the microscopic appearance of the kidney. Rayer himself was examining urine under
the microscope as early as 1835.
WARD Joshua (1685–1761)
A bit of a quack and physician to George II. He produced a “dropsy purging powder”.
WATT Robert (1774–1819)
Licenciate of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. Watt wrote on cases
of diabetes and consumption, etc. with observations on their history and treatment,
1809. He is most famous for his bibliography, Bibliotheca Britannica (1819–24).
WELLS William Charles (1757–1817)
Although born in South Carolina, Wells graduated in Edinburgh and was a physician
at St. Thomas's Hospital. He had a remarkable intellect completing work on dew, anticipating
Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection and giving an early account of both rheumatic
heart disease and, in 1812, albuminous urine in dropsy.
WILLIS Robert (1767–1821)
His main contributions were annotated by Sir John Aldridge in ‘Biographic Notes’,
Dublin Journal of Medical Science, 1839, vol. 15.
WILLIS Thomas (1621–75)
Best remembered for his description of the cerebral circulation in his Cerebri Anatome
(1664), illustrated by Sir Christopher Wren. He was the first to bring qualitative
study to the examination of urine and described the characteristic sweet taste of
diabetic urine. He also wrote extensively on the anatomy of the kidney.
WILSON Alexander Philip (1770–1847)
He published An inquiry into the remote cause of urinary gravel, Edinburgh, 1792.
WRISBERG Heinrich August (1739–1808)
Best known for his work on the cranial nerves.