Updated January 01, 2014.
Question: How Did Hodgkin's Lymphoma Get Its Name?
Answer:
Hodgkin’s lymphoma is named after Thomas Hodgkin (1798-1866), a British pathologist who first described this disease more than 175 years back.
Thomas Hodgkin was one of the most prominent British pathologists of his time. In 1832, while working as the conservator of the pathology museum at Guy’s Hospital in London (where he studied preserved specimens of human organs affected by different diseases), he published a paper that described a pattern of disease in the lymph nodes and spleen that he thought was a specific disease rather than an infection.
This paper, entitled "On Some Morbid Appearances of the Absorbent Glands and Spleen," was published in the Journal of the Medical and Chirurgical Society in London.
At the time of publication, this paper went almost unnoticed. More than three decades later, in 1865, another British physician, Samuel Wilks, described the same disease features. While looking through earlier papers, he realized that Hodgkin had actually discovered the disease before him. He named the disease after Hodgkin. Since then, this cancer of the lymph nodes bears this name.
Thomas Hodgkin has a lot more to his credit than just describing Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He also first described acute appendicitis and aortic insufficiency, a disease of the heart. He also wrote several seminal books, including one on the spread of cancer to the lungs and abdomen. He was also a great proponent of social medicine, race equality and philanthropy.
Source:
King's College London, University of London website: "King's College History – Thomas Hodgkin." Accessed: August 2008.
[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/aboutkings/history/famouspeople/thomashodgkin.aspx]
previous post