Moritz Heinrich Romberg (1795-1873) acquired much of the wisdom and attitudes prevailing in English medicine when in 1820 he translated into German, Andrew Marshall's (1742-1813) The Morbid Anatomy of the Brain and Charles Bell's The Nervous System of the Human Body. He revolutionised European neurology, publishing his Lehrbuch der Nervenkrankheiten des Menschen: the first systematic textbook in neurology. Romberg's contribution to neurology, and his establishing tabes dorsalis as a distinctive disease were of crucial importance. Romberg's sign, once synonymous with tabes dorsalis, became recognised as common to all proprioceptive disorders of the legs. His several major clinical contributions included: a classic description of achondroplasia, progressive facial hemiatrophy, and an unmistakable description of the pupils in tertiary syphilis before E.J. Remak and Argyll Robertson.

History, 18th Century↗

PubMed2005

Richard Dobson Kt MRCS FRS (1773-1847) and the inferior status of naval medicine in the early nineteenth century: end of the fleet physicians.

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century assistant-surgeons in the Navy possessed an inferior status compared with their equivalents in the Army, despite protestations from the Physician of the Navy, Sir William Burnett FRS; lack of promotion was a major complaint. By abolishing the title physician in the Navy, Sir Richard Dobson, FRS, surgeon to Greenwich Hospital, did much to rectify this injustice. Instead of only two promotions in 26 years, 26 medical officers were, as a result of his exertions, advanced to the rank above that of Surgeon in two years.

History, 18th Century↗

PubMed2005

Chekhov and Rossolimo: careers in medicine and neurology in Russia 100 years ago.

Neurology as a specialty was established at the close of the 19th century, especially in England, France, Germany, and the United States. It was not uncommon for US physicians to seek postgraduate training in those three Western European countries. However, Russian clinical investigators and scientists, who contributed to neurology and the neurosciences, rarely had their papers cited in Western medical publications. The medical careers of the well-known writer-physician Anton P. Chekhov and his contemporary G.I. Rossolimo, an academic neurologist at the University of Moscow, illustrate their contributions within the constraints of their autocratic society. Their work led to a better understanding of the complexities of human behavior, Chekhov through his enduring writings, and Rossolimo as a founder of neuropsychology and child neurology.

History, 18th Century↗