Journal of Medical Biography

This article revisits the life and times of Otto Krayer, a gifted scientist, teacher and administrator. His unique contributions to the discipline of pharmacology and to the biomedical sciences are chronicled in the wake of the political upheaval that crippled German science during the 1930s. The anti-scientific attitude that pervaded Germany at the time led to the exile of Krayer and many other eminent scientists. Their fate is recounted, as well as the negative impact on science caused by a National Socialist regime that blatantly disregarded basic scientific principles. The threat of intolerance and unethical behaviour still remains a key obstacle to scientific creativity.

Odessa physician Yakov Bardakh had an unusually high number of bacteriological ‘firsts’ to his credit: in 1886, while working at the Odessa Bacteriological Station, he was the first to test Louis Pasteur’s anti-rabies vaccine on himself in order to demonstrate its safety. In the 1890s, in addition to conducting pioneering research on diphtheria, he created the first extensive course in bacteriology at the Novorossiya University – the first such course in Russia – and established the first university laboratory in Russia to specialize in bacteriology. In 1903 he created the first Medical Emergency Service in Russia.

Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola in Western Poland. He had no formal piano tuition and one could say that his skill as a pianist was self-taught, close to a miracle. All his compositions included the piano; this was not a restriction for him. The illnesses that plagued him and the cause of his death are the subject of articles by retrospective diagnosticians.

José Celestino Mutis y Bosio was a Spanish physician, naturalist, astronomer, priest, theologian and mathematician, and one of the icons of the Enlightment Age both in Spain and the American Continent. As the Viceroy’s personal doctor, he travelled to the territory of New Granada in what is now Colombia. Mutis was the creator and first leader of the Royal Botanic Expedition of New Granada to study South American wildlife, discovering thousands of new species. He also launched several Public Health measures in the Santa Fe area, helping to introduce a vaccination campaign. Mutis was the first person to introduce Newtonian physics in the Spanish America and he established the first Observatory in the New World which is still in use. He was deeply admired and recognized as a prominent scientist by great personalities of his time including Carl von Linée and Alexander von Humboldt.

This paper provides a review of some aspects of the life and novels of Jane Austen that have particular bearing on her approach to issues of sickness and health. It is based on a Keynote Lecture given at the Annual Congress of the British Society for the History of Medicine on 1 September 2011 at the University of Surrey.

The authors investigated the life, the works and the illness of the humanist and poet Agnolo Ambrogini, better known as Politian, and the cause of his death, shedding evidence on the ambiguous meaning of the term scabies that is included in the titles of two works ascribed to Politian, namely ‘Sylva in scabiem’ and ‘De scabie’. These two works tell us the illness that will kill Politian who describes them in detail as a new illness that does appear in other important works dated between the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th. This new illness will be called ‘syphilis’. Syphilis was virulent in Europe soon after it appeared and it killed Politian within one year. He seems to have been the first famous European who was not a physician who described his own syphilis. Others include the poet Niccolò Campani (1478–1523), the writer and humanist Ulrich Von Hutten (1488–1523), the sculptor and writer Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571) and Joseph Grunpeck (1473–1532), and secretary to Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519). The origins of this serious condition have been ascribed to the crew who accompanied Christopher Columbus (1451–1506).

Alexis Carrel was a French surgeon in the 20th century. He made significant contributions to many advances in the fields of vascular surgery, cardiothoracic surgery and organ transplantation. He demonstrated that blood vessels can be united end-to-end and pioneered the triangulation suturing technique in vascular anastomosis. The methods he developed are still in use to this day. He insisted on the importance of absolute asepsis in vascular surgery when such practices were almost unheard of. He was also considered the father of solid organ transplantation. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in recognition of his work. Together with Charles Lindbergh, he developed the extracorporeal perfusion pump to keep organs alive outside the human body. His contribution to medicine also extended to tissue culture and wound management. He was one of the most controversial figures of his generation, believing in the idea of genetic superiority and eugenics and he was associated with fascism in the 1930s.

Stanley Cobb was an eminent neurologist that is regarded as ‘the founder of biological psychiatry'. Having studied at Harvard university, Cobb had many varied interests, including ornithology and natural history. Following his undergraduate studies, he travelled widely and incorporated a period of study in Europe. Upon return to America, he was appointed Director of the Harvard Neurological Unit. Following a change of interest from neurology to psychiatry, Cobb was instrumental in establishing psychiatry as a specialty in America. The research laboratory, ‘Stanley Cobb Laboratory for Psychiatric Research' at Massachusetts General Hospital was named in his honour and contribution to the service at the hospital.

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 attempt to demystify his figure and to explore some of the rumours and criticisms surrounding his name and the reasons why so little has been written about him. It is also a venture to unravel his complex personality and his intricate philosophy.