William Blair-Bell
William Blair-Bell (* 1871 in Wallasey , England ; † January 25, 1936 in Shrewsbury ) was a British surgeon , gynecologist and obstetrician .
Life
William Blair-Bell was born in 1871 to general practitioner William Bell and his wife Helen. He attended Rossall School and studied medicine at King's College London . There he obtained the Conjoint Diploma in 1896 , the Bachelor of Medicine (BM) in 1902, the Doctor of Medicine (MD) in 1902 and the Bachelor of Science (BS) in 1904 . He began his professional career as a general practitioner at Wallasey Cottage Hospital . In 1905 he took a position as a gynecologist in the ambulance of the Liverpool Royal Infirmary . From the beginning he combined clinical work with scientific examinations, in which he also included medical laboratory examinations.
He put forward the thesis that all reproductive functions are regulated by the interaction of all internal glands and not by the gonads alone. He published his observations in 1916 in the book The Sex Complex . In 1919 he published the extensive monograph The Pituitary ( pituitary gland ), for which he received the John Hunter Medal , the three-year prize of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Astley Cooper Prize . Blair-Bell was the first to use pituitrin, an extract from bovine pituitary gland containing oxytocin and vasopressin , in obstetrics for increased bleeding in the postpartum period .
Because of the abortive effects of lead in early pregnancy and the thesis that the chorionic tissue is potentially malignant tissue, he tried to cure cancers with lead. In 1920 he treated a patient with an inoperable medullary breast cancer by intravenous administration of colloidal lead iodide. Thereafter, within one month, the tumor growth ceased and the tumor regressed in part.
In 1913 Blair-Bell became Senior Surgeon at Liverpool Royal Infirmary and in 1921 Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Liverpool . He held this position until his retirement in 1931. Together with Sir William Fletcher Shaw (1878-1961), Blair-Bell founded the British College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 1929 , which later became the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and was its first president. William Blair-Bell died suddenly at the age of 64 on the afternoon of January 25, 1936 on a train returning home from London near Shrewsbury .
He had been married to his cousin Florence since 1898 , who died in 1929. The couple had no children.
Fonts (selection)
- The Principles of Gynecology 1910
- The Sex Complex 1916
- The Pituitary 1919
Awards
- Fellow of King's College 1928
- President of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 1929–1935
- Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
- Fellow of the American College of Surgeons
- Honorary Doctorate from the University of Glasgow
- Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liverpool
- Commander of the Star Order of Romania
literature
- The Late William Blair-Bell, MD, FRCS Can Med Assoc J 34 (1936), 683-684, PMID 20320291 , PMC 1561749 (free full text).
- Obituary William Blair-Bell, MD, FRCS BMJ 1/1936, 287-9, doi : 10.1136 / bmj.1.3918.287 .
- John Peel: William Blair-Bell: father and founder. Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 1986.
- John Peel: The lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 1929-1969. Heinemann Medical Books, 1976.
- Irvine Loudon: Book Review: John Peel "William Blair-Bell: father and founder." Med Hist 31 (1987), 363-364, PMC 1139751 (free full text).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Blair-Bell, William |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British surgeon, gynecologist and obstetrician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1871 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wallasey , England |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 25, 1936 |
| Place of death | at Shrewsbury |