Thomas Hodgkin: Medical Immortal and Uncompromising Idealist

Abstract

Thomas Hodgkin was born into a devout Quaker family in Pentonville, England, in 1798 (Table ​(Table11). His upbringing imbued him from early life with honesty, discipline, and concern for the less fortunate (1, 2). As a Quaker, Thomas wore plain clothes and spoke in a formal manner. At age 21, he wrote an “Essay on the Promotion of Civilization,” in which he criticized the imperialistic behavior of colonists that led to the degradation or death of North American Indians and other native peoples. Thomas also developed an interest in science. From 1817 until 1820 he served as apprentice to an apothecary and “walked the wards” at Guy's Hospital in London. While a medical student at Edinburgh, Hodgkin visited European medical centers during 1821–1822 and met Rene Laennec in Paris. Laennec had recently devised the stethoscope and taught Hodgkin how to use it. He received his medical degree from Edinburgh in 1823, the same year he met Moses Montefiore, a wealthy financier and philanthropist who was to become his lifelong patient and close friend. Table 1 Chronology of the life of Thomas Hodgkin In 1826, Hodgkin was appointed first lecturer in morbid anatomy and museum curator at the new Guy's Hospital Medical School in London. During the next 12 years at Guy's, Hodgkin made a number of major contributions (Figure ​(Figure11). Despite his brilliance Hodgkin was rejected for a clinical staff position in 1837, after which he resigned from Guy's Hospital. 1857 marked the first of five journeys with Moses Montefiore on behalf of Jews, Christians, and Arabs in various countries. In 1865 Samuel Wilks wrote his paper using the term “Hodgkin's disease.” In the following year Thomas Hodgkin died of dysentery in Palestine. He is buried in Jaffa. Figure 1 Thomas Hodgkin. Reproduced courtesy of Gordon Museum, Guy's Hospital, GKT, King's College London.

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