William Gull

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William Withey Gull 1881

Sir William Withey Gull, 1st Baronet FRS (born December 31, 1816 in Colchester , Essex , † January 29, 1890 in London ) was an English doctor . Together with William Jenner , he successfully treated the typhoid disease of the Prince of Wales in 1871 , who later ascended the British throne as King Edward VII . His work on anorexia nervosa , which he was the first to refer to, myxedema and paraplegia drove research in the field of neurology in the 19th century.

Childhood and youth

Gull was the youngest of eight siblings. Two of his siblings died in childhood; among the remaining were three sisters and two brothers. His father was a barge operator on the River Lea . When Gull was around four years old, the family moved to Thorpe le Soken , where Gull grew up. His father died of cholera a few years later , leaving the family almost destitute. Nevertheless, the mother worked hard to educate her children. Gull first went to school with his sisters and later moved to a boarding school run by a priest . There he began to learn Latin. At seventeen he decided not to go to school because he felt that he could no longer learn from the headmaster. He went as a teacher at a school in Lewes and lived there with the headmaster's family, who supported his further education. She also brought him into contact with the architect and amateur botanist Joseph Woods , who made him enthusiastic about the flora and fauna of Sussex . After two years he left Lewes and returned to live with his mother and siblings.

The family had meanwhile moved to Beaumont, five years after the death of their father, where Gull found a patron in the nephew of the administrator of Guy's Hospital . Benjamin Harrison, who headed the hospital since 1797, encouraged him to begin an education there in 1837 and also supported him financially during this time.

Medical work

Baronetcy of Brook Street Coat of Arms

In 1841 graduated Gull his medical degree as a Bachelor of Medicine with honors in medicine, surgery , physiology and comparative anatomy from. Shortly afterwards, he took over his first teaching positions at Guy's Hospital. He was awarded his doctorate in 1846. Between 1846 and 1856 he taught natural philosophy , physiology and comparative anatomy at Guy's Hospital and in 1847 became Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution of Great Britain . During this time, a close friendship developed with Michael Faraday , one of the most important experimental physicists of his time. Throughout his career, Gull has received a variety of academic awards and prizes; among other things he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Royal Society .

In addition to his teaching activities, Gull was primarily a successful, practicing doctor. He gained particular fame after he and William Jenner looked after and treated the British heir to the throne in 1871 during a life-threatening typhoid disease. After the Prince of Wales had recovered , he was given the hereditary title of Baronet , of Brook Street, in the Parish of Saint George, Hanover Square, in the County of Middlesex, in gratitude for his services on February 8, 1872 , and was appointed personal physician of the royal family.

Contributions to medical research

Between 1845 and 1888, Gull published 92 scientific publications in specialist journals.

In 1873 a publication appeared in which Gull described the mentally caused eating disorder anorexia nervosa using three case studies and was the first to name it. His last contribution a few years before his death dealt with this topic.

  • Representation of Miss A before (above) and after the treatment (below)

  • Representation of Miss B before (above) and after the treatment (below)

While his work on anorexia nervosa went unnoticed in the scientific world, his publication on myxedema from 1873 met with widespread interest. The clinical picture was already known, but Gull realized that it is caused by an atrophy of the thyroid gland . William Miller Ord named the disease four years later.

Gull also made valuable contributions to understanding the causes of spinal cord injury.

Private life

Gull was married. Only two of his children reached adulthood. The daughter Caroline married the well-known London doctor and surgeon Theodore Dyke Acland ; the son William Cameron Gull became a barrister and was also politically active.

In October 1887, while on vacation in Scotland, Gull suffered a first stroke , which was followed by more until his death in January 1890.

When Gull died, he left behind more than £ 344,000 which was a very large fortune at the time. His son William Cameron Gull inherited his title of nobility as 2nd baronet.

Trivia

In 1976 Stephen Knight published a book in which he proposed that William Gull could have committed the murders of Jack the Ripper in the fall of 1888. This theory was also taken up in the 1988 film Jack the Ripper - The Monster of London , in the comic From Hell , as well as in the film adaptation of the comic .

However, given Gull's poor health and advanced age, this seems unlikely.

literature

Web links

Commons : William Gull  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f TD Acland: William Withey Gull - A Biographical Sketch . 1896 (English, online ).
  2. ↑ a b c JMS Pearce: Sir William Withey Gull (1816-1890) . In: European Neurology . tape 55 , no. 1 , 2006, ISSN  1421-9913 , p. 53-56 , doi : 10.1159 / 000091430 ( karger.com ).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i JA Silverman: Sir William Gull (1819–1890). Limner of anorexia nervosa and myxoedema. An historical essay and encomium. In: Eating and weight disorders: EWD. Volume 2, Number 3, September 1997, pp. 111-116, ISSN  1124-4909 . PMID 14655833 .
  4. ↑ a b Sir William Withey Gull. In: Whonamedit. Retrieved November 27, 2014 .
  5. ↑ a b c WW Gull: Anorexia nervosa (apepsia hysterica, anorexia hysterica). 1868. In: Obesity research. Volume 5, Number 5, September 1997, pp. 498-502, ISSN  1071-7323 ; doi: 10.1002 / j.1550-8528.1997.tb00677.x , PMID 9385628 .
  6. ^ William Gull: Anorexia Nervosa . In: The Lancet. 131, 1888, pp. 516-517, doi: 10.1016 / S0140-6736 (00) 48519-3 .
  7. ↑ a b JMS Pearce: myxedema and Sir William Withey Gull (1816-1890). In: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. 77, 2006, pp. 639-639, doi: 10.1136 / jnnp.2005.082198 .
  8. ↑ Sir William Withey Gull, 1st Bt. On thepeerage.com , accessed August 19, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Gull, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gull, Sir William Withey, 1st Baronet (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British doctor
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1816
PLACE OF BIRTH Colchester , Essex
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1890
Place of death London