Thomas Hodgkin: the “man” and “his disease”

Thomas Hodgkin (1798–1865) was one of the leading physicians and scientists of the nineteenth century. His outstanding contributions transcend many fields, medical and non-medical. A renowned diagnostician, he carried out pioneering work in public health and epidemiology, but devoted the greater part of his career to the study of pathology. Among his many interests were anthropology, geology, geography, and ethnography. He helped found the University of London. [...] His most important legacy to medical science was the recognition of the condition called “Hodgkin’s disease,” now known as “Hodgkin lymphoma”. Hodgkin did not fully appreciate the importance of this work and, indeed, it was not recalled as being a particularly noteworthy contribution at the time of his death.

 A un anno dal seminario del prof. Pettinato, posto un recente paper che prende in esame la vita di Thomas Hodgkin e la storia della patologia che da lui ha preso il nome.

Geller SA, Taylor CR. Thomas Hodgkin: the "man" and "his disease": humani nihil a se alienum putabit (nothing human was foreign to him). Virchows Arch. 2013 Jul 26.

a A specimen from the Gordon Museum, Guy’s Hospital of one of the original Hodgkin lymphoma cases described by Hodgkin.

b Water-color drawing by Robert Carswell of case VII . Both images show well the discrete abnormal nodes in contrast to the usual picture of non-Hodgkin lymphoma where nodes are matted together 

(da Geller et al, 2013)