Sir William Withey GullDied 29 Jan 1890 at age 73 (born 31 Dec 1816). English physician (1st Baronet) who was prominent in his field, and a leading clinical teacher, at Guy's Hospital, London, for most of his life. After he successfully treated the Prince of Wales for typhoid, he was created a baronet (1872). Queen Victoria also was one of his patients. He wrote the first descriptionof syringomyelia (1862). The disease for which he remains known, Gull's disease, had been described before him, but by 1874, Gull had associatedmyxoedema with atrophy of the thyroid gland, which he viewed as an adult form of cretinism. He coined theterm Anorexia Nervosa(1874) for a “nervous loss of appetite,” known since it had been described by physician, Richard Morton (1689). He believed in minimal use of drugs, but supported the use of vivisection in research.« |
