Hodgkin's diseaseIn 1832, Thomas Hodgkin, age 34, took a paper to the Medical and Surgical Society in London. Since he wasn't a member, the Society's secretary had to read it for him. Only eight members were present. The title was Some Morbid Appearances of the Absorbent Glands and Spleen. It was mostly ignored; only late in that century was this rare lymphatic disease named Hodkin's disease in England, long after the Germans had started calling it Hodgkin's Krankheit. Although Marcello Malpighi had written about the disease in 1666, Hodgkin's paper was the first to well document the disease. (With present knowledge, of the seven cases Hodgkin described, only three were legitimate examples; four cases were other illnesses that mimic Hodgkin's disease.) |
