Francis Xavier Dercum

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Francis X. Dercum

Francis Xavier Dercum (born August 10, 1856 in Philadelphia , † April 24, 1931 ) was an American neurologist and namesake of the disease Dercum's disease .

life and career

Francis Xavier Dercum came from a well-to-do merchant family with English ancestors.

After attending Central High School in Philadelphia , he began studying medicine at the University of Pennsylvania , which he graduated with a doctorate in 1877. From 1878 to 1883 he was the prosector of histology and physiology at the same place of activity. Then he was u. a. worked as a pathologist at the "State Hospital for the Insane" in Norristown (Pennsylvania) and soon after became a private lecturer. In 1884 he became director of the neurological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania.

From 1887 he worked as a neurologist at the Philadelphia Hospital. In 1892 he became head of the department for clinical neurology at "Jefferson Medical College" and in 1900 took over the newly established department for nervous and mental diseases, which he headed until his retirement in 1925.

In 1931 he died of a heart attack during a meeting of the American Philosophical Society , of which he had been a member since 1892 .

At an early age he became an active member of various societies, including the Academy of Natural Sciences . He founded the "Philadelphia Neurological Society", became a member and soon President of the "American Neurological Society" and the "College of Physicians of Philadelphia", was a co-founder of the Anthropological Society, a member of the Societé de Neurologie de Paris and the Legion of Honor .

He was married to Elizabeth De Haven Comply. He held a doctorate in philosophy and was president of the American Philosophical Society.

Merits

Together with Eadweard Muybridge , he documented neurological diseases photographically for the first time.

Publications

  • 1895: "Textbook on Nervous Diseases by American Authors"
  • 1913: "A Clinical Manual of Mental Diseases"
  • 1916: "Hysteria and Accident Compensation"
  • 1917: "Rest, Suggestion and Other therapeutic Measures in Nervous and Mental Diseases"
  • 1922: "An essay on the Physiology of Mind"
  • 1924: "The Biology of Internal Secretions"
  • 1925: "The Physiology of the Mind"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member History: Francis X. Dercum. American Philosophical Society, accessed July 12, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Dercum, Francis Xavier
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American neurologist and namesake of Dercum's disease
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1931