William G. Lennox

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William Gordon Lennox (born July 18, 1884 in Colorado Springs , Colorado, † July 21, 1960 in Middlesex County, Massachusetts) was an American neurologist and epileptologist .

Life

After attending college (in Colorado), Lennox actually wanted to study theology in Boston , but was rejected because of his poor knowledge of Latin and Greek, after which he decided to study medicine at Harvard Medical School . After completing his studies, he spent four years as a medical missionary in China ( Union Medical College in Beijing ), where the epilepsy of a friend's daughter made him interested in epilepsy .

Upon returning to Boston, Lennox began both basic research and clinical studies in epilepsy at Harvard Medical School .

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Lennox pioneered the use of electroencephalography (EEG) for the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. Later he worked a. a. with the neurologist and clinical neurophysiologist Frederic A. Gibbs and carried out twin studies .

He was u. a. 1936–1937 first president of the US League against Epilepsy (= predecessor organization of the US Epilepsy Society or American Epilepsy Society; AES ). and 1935-1949 President and 1949-1953 Honorary President of the International League Against Epilepsy ( English International League Against Epilepsy , ILAE).

From 1941 to 1948 Lennox was co-editor (with Hans Iacob Schou ) of the second series of the journal Epilepsia of the ILAE, from 1948 to 1950 (second series) and again in 1952 (third series) then sole editor.

The Lennox-Gastaut syndrome is named after him and Henri Gastaut .

After the Second World War he suggested the re-establishment of the German section of the International League Against Epilepsy (since 2004: German Society for Epileptology ).

Together with his daughter Margret Lennox-Buchthal he has u. a. wrote a classic, two-volume epilepsy textbook, he was also the author of an Eplepsie book for laypeople.

Books

  • WG Lennox, S. Cobb: Epilepsy. (= Medicine Monographs. Vol 14). Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore 1928.
  • WG Lennox: The Health and Turnover of Missionaries. Advisory Committee, The Foreign Missions Conference, New York 1933.
  • WG Lennox: Science and Seizures. New Light on Epilepsy and Migraine. Harper & Brothers, New York / London 1941. (2nd edition 1949)
  • WG Lennox, MA Lennox: Epilepsy and Related Disorders. 2 volumes. Little, Brown and Company, Boston / Toronto 1960.

Honors

The "William G. Lennox Award" of the American Epilepsy Society (AES) is named after him. It has been awarded since the 1960s, usually annually since 1966, and is now endowed with US $ 10,000. The award is an award for long-term members of the AES for lifelong contributions and achievements related to epilepsy.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ FA Gibbs: William Gordon Lennox 1884-1960. In: Epilepsia. 2, 1961, pp. 1-8.
  2. JG Millichap: William Lennox. In: S. Ashwal (Ed.): The Founders of Child Neurology. Norman Publishing in association with the Child Neurology Society, San Francisco 1990, pp. 758-763.
  3. Norbert J. Pies: Biographical and bibliographical information from the history of epilepsy. William James West (1794–1848), James Edwin West (1840–1860), John Hughlings-Jackson (1835–1911), William Gordon Lennox (1884–1960). Munich 1990, ISBN 3-87531-200-7 .
  4. WG Lennox: The heredity of epilepsy as told by relatives and twins. In: JAMA. 146, 1951, pp. 529-536.