Journal of Medical Biography

The morbidity and mortality of soldiers injured during the First World War stemmed in large part from infections of battle wounds. Preventing and treating such infections was a major challenge for the medical corps. Alexis Carrel, a French-American surgeon, advocated irrigating open wounds with a hypochlorite solution (the Carrel–Dakin solution) to prevent the growth of bacteria contaminating them. His method of treatment was complicated and time consuming and was not well followed by surgeons who doubted the necessity of such an exacting protocol. In 1917, Carrel wrote a letter to an American colonel overseeing U.S. medical personnel soliciting his support in training American medical personnel in the proper use of the Carrel–Dakin solution. This letter was the stimulus for recalling here the opposition encountered by both Carrel and Joseph Lister, his predecessor in the aseptic–antiseptic treatment of open wounds, and for noting the conflicting views of contemporary surgeons over surgical sepsis.

Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov, one of the greatest Russian surgeons of the 19th Century, was convinced of the importance of deploying nurses to care for the casualties of war. With the support of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, sister-in-law of Tsar Nikolas I, Pirogov realised the idea during the Crimean war when Russia became the first country to send female nurses to the battle front. Later in the 19th century, large numbers of Russian women trained as nurses under the auspices of the Russian Red Cross, founded in 1867. In peacetime, their expertise was extremely valuable.

The medical history of Iran and Islam is marked by the presence of renowned physicians, some of whom are not well known outside Iran. Ab υ ¯ Man⋅ υ ¯ r ῌasan ibn N υ ¯ ḥ Qamarī Bukhārā 'ī was an Iranian physician living in the fourth century AH (10th century CE). The scientific works of this sage indicate his skill and expertise in medical science. He was a man of such scientific stature that the renowned Iranian philosopher and physician, Avicenna, use may have been one of his disciples. Qamarī may be credited as one of the promoters of the medical school of Muḥammad Ibn Zakarīyyā Rāzī. Some of his works, including Al-Tanwīr Fī 'Isṭilāḥāt Al-Ṭibbīyyah and Al-Ghinā and Al-Munā are still extant. In this paper, his scientific life and works, based on primary sources, have been studied in order to shed light on his role in formation of the Muslim Medical School.

Dr Gilbert Kymer (d. 1463) was a leading royal physician, scholar, cleric and university administrator of the first half of the 15th century. He was physician to Henry V & VI, and principally to Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, for whom he wrote an extensive Dietarium. He collected medical books and facilitated their translation, and helped to set up Duke Humfrey’s library at Oxford. He became Dean of Salisbury, and for 11 years was Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

The golden age of Islamic medicine (800 to 1300 CE) is a notable period in medical history. Medical education in this period of time was significant and systematic in Islamic territory. In the early Golden Age of Islamic Medicine, Abū Zayd Ḥunain ibn Isḥāq al-'Ibādī, an exceptional scholar and translator, emerged. He was known as Johannitius in medieval Europe. Al-Masā‘il fī al-tibb lil-Mutāllimīn (Questions on Medicine for Students) was written by Hunain ibn Isḥāq. This book remains a definitive text on Islamic medicine and has been printed and published widely in Europe. Al-Masā‘il fī al-tibb is written in the style of questions and answers which is distinct from the conventional writing style of medical books on Islamic medicine. The current article reviews Al-Masā‘il fī al-tibb and its distinguishing style, the question and answer format. Today, the question-and-answer method is a popular method of medical education, and clinical teachers tend to use it in medical education because of the advantages it offers. The use of this method in Al-Masā‘il fī al-tibb for education and examination of medical students by Ḥunain ibn Isḥāq reflects a great improvisation in medical education and introduces him as the leading developer of the question-and-answer method in Islamic medical education.

Paul Bruce Beeson (1908–2006) was a preeminent academic physician in both the United States and Great Britain. He attended medical school at McGill University in Canada and then trained at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University. During his career, he was Chairman of the Departments of Medicine at Emory University and at Yale University and then became Nuffield Professor at Oxford University. He ended his career at the Veterans Administration in Seattle as a Distinguished Physician. He was a skilled administrator and an excellent and admired clinician. He was also a productive scientist, who discovered interleukin-1, studied the pathogenesis of urinary tract infections and endocarditis, and delineated the causes of prolonged fever of unknown origin.

Robert Furchgott was first noted for research on drug–receptor theory, autonomic neuroeffector mechanisms, and vascular pharmacology/physiology. His studies on drug–receptor interactions provided important knowledge about the properties of drug receptors long before methodologies were developed to study them directly. However, Furchgott achieved an enduring legacy for recognizing the importance of endothelial cells for the relaxation of vascular smooth muscle. On the basis of his own experiments and those of others, he proposed that acetylcholine interacted with muscarinic receptors at the surface of endothelial cells to release a substance called endothelium relaxing factor. Endothelium relaxing factor was later identified as nitric oxide, a colorless, odorless gas. Furchgott’s discovery of an entirely new mechanism by which blood vessels dilate revolutionized studies on the physiology of the vascular system. His work also suggested new treatments for hypertension and heart disease, and was a key factor in the development of the anti-impotence drug sildenafil. In 1998, Robert Furchgott shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ferid Murad and Louis Ignarro.

John Marshall Cowan (1870–1947) descended from a long line of Glasgow medical practitioners. He was at the forefront in the great advances made in cardiology during the first quarter of the 20th century. He was a founder member of the Cardiac Club and the principal author of a major text book Diseases of the Heart, first published in 1914. He had a distinguished military career and was physician in charge of wards in the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow and Professor of Medicine at Anderson's College, Glasgow. This article outlines Cowan's life, career and publications and also provides an examination of his magnum opus, Diseases of the Heart.