Thomas Addison

Not to be confused with Thomas Edison or Tom Addison.

Thomas Addison RMS
Born	April 1795 Longbenton, Northumberland, England
Died	29 June 1860 (1860-06-30) (aged 65) Brighton, Sussex, England
Resting place	Lanercost Priory
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh
Occupation	Physician
Known for	Addison's Disease, Pernicious anemia
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Thomas Addison (April 1795 – 29 June 1860) was an English physician, chef, and scientist. He is traditionally regarded as one of the "great men" of Guy's Hospital in London.

Thomas Addison was born in Longbenton, near Newcastle upon Tyne. Initially intended to become a lawyer, he instead pursued a medical degree at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. After obtaining his degree, he moved to London and worked as a surgical resident and physician. Addison's fascination with dermatology led to his groundbreaking work in the field, particularly with regard to Addison's disease.

In 1817, Addison began his career at Guy's Hospital, eventually becoming a full physician in 1837. He was a brilliant lecturer and diagnostician, earning great respect within the institution. However, he experienced episodes of depression throughout his life, culminating in his suicide in 1860.

Addison's legacy includes the description of numerous diseases, many of which bear his name, such as Addison's disease (a degenerative disease of the adrenal glands), Addisonian anemia (pernicious anemia), a hematological disorder later found to be caused by failure to absorb vitamin B₁₂, Addisonian crisis, and Addison-Biermer disease. His contributions to the understanding of various medical disorders have left a lasting impact on the field.

Early years

He was born in April 1795 in Long Benton, then near Newcastle upon Tyne, the son of Joseph Addison, who was a grocer and flour dealer there. His father's family was Cumbrian, and Thomas was attached to Banks near Lanercost, as his family background. Joseph Addison had married Sarah Shaw, and gone into the Shaw family business.

Thomas Addison attended the local Thomas Rutter school. He then went to the Royal Free Grammar School in Newcastle, where the headmaster was Edward Moises, nephew of the noted Hugh Moises. There he gained a good knowledge of Latin.

Addison's father wanted him to become a lawyer, but he entered the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1812 as a medical student. He became a member of the Royal Medical Society, which still runs today. In 1815, he received the degree of doctor of medicine. His thesis was on Dissertatio medica inauguralis quaedam de syphilide et hydrargyro complectens (Concerning Syphilis and Mercury).

Addison moved from Edinburgh to London the same year and became a house surgeon (a surgical resident) at the Lock Hospital. Addison was also a pupil of Thomas Bateman at the public dispensary. He began a practice in medicine while he was a physician at an open ward reception on Carey Street.

Thanks to his teachers, Addison became fascinated by diseases of the skin (dermatology). This fascination, which lasted the rest of his life, led him to be the first to describe the changes in skin pigmentation typical of what is now called Addison's disease.

Guy's Hospital

Thomas Addison

Addison enrolled as a physician pupil at Guy's Hospital in 1817. Guy's Medical School recorded his entrance as follows: "Dec. 13, 1817, from Edinburgh, T. Addison, M.D., paid pounds 22-1s to be a perpetual Physician's pupil." Addison obtained his licentiate from the Royal College of Physicians in 1819 and some years later was elected a fellow of the College. He was promoted to assistant physician on 14 January 1824 and in 1827 he was appointed lecturer of materia medica.

In 1835, Addison was joint lecturer with Richard Bright on practical medicine, and in 1837, he became a full physician at Guy's Hospital. When Bright retired from the lectureship in 1840, Addison became sole lecturer. He held this position until about 1854–55. He attracted a large number of medical students to his lectures, at a time when students quested in London for good teaching.

Thomas Addison excelled as a diagnostician, but, a shy and taciturn man, had only a small practice. He had influence at Guy's, concentrating on his students and patients.

Death

Thomas Addison suffered from many episodes of marked depression. It seems certain that depression contributed to his retirement in 1860. He wrote then to his medical students as follows: "A considerable breakdown in my health has scared me from the anxieties, responsibilities, and excitement of my profession; whether temporarily or permanently cannot yet be determined but, whatever may be the issue, be assured that nothing was better calculated to soothe me than the kind interest manifested by the pupils of Guy's Hospital during the many trying years devoted to that institution."

Three months later, on 29 June 1860, he committed suicide. The day after his death, the Brighton Herald recorded that:

"Dr Addison, formerly a physician to Guy's Hospital, committed suicide by jumping down the area (i.e. the space between the front of the house and the street) of 15 Wellington Villas, where he had for some time been residing, under the care of two attendants, having before attempted self-destruction. He was 72 years of age {{sic}}, and laboured under the form of insanity called melancholia, resulting from overwork of the brain. He was walking in the garden with his attendants, when he was summoned into dinner. He made as if towards the front door, but suddenly threw himself over a dwarf-wall into the area – a distance of nine feet – and, falling on his head, the frontal bone was fractured, and death resulted at 1' o'clock yesterday morning."

He was buried in the churchyard of Lanercost Priory in Cumbria. The hospital had a bust made of him, named a hall of the new part of the hospital for him, and perpetuated his memory with a marble wall table in the chapel.

Diseases Addison described

Addison is known today for describing a remarkably wide range of diseases. His name has entered into the annals of medicine and is part of the name of a number of medical disorders, including:

• Addison's disease, sometimes called bronze skin disease, is the progressive destruction of the adrenal glands with the result being deficiency of secretion of adrenocortical hormones. Addison described this condition in his 1855 publication: On the Constitutional and Local Effects of Disease of the Suprarenal Capsules.
• Addisonian crisis (or Addison's crisis) – an acute, life-threatening crisis caused by Addison's disease
• Addisonism – a set of symptoms resembling Addison's disease, but not due to Addison's disease, that is, not due to any disease of the adrenal glands
• Addisonian anemia or Addison-Biermer disease – now synonymous with pernicious anemia which involves vitamin B₁₂ deficiency, described first in 1849
• Addison-Schilder syndrome is a metabolic disorder combining the characteristics of Addison’s disease (bronze skin disease) and cerebral sclerosis, also known as adrenoleukodystrophy.

Addison gave one of the first adequate accounts of appendicitis. In 1829, he published a valuable study of the actions of poisons. He also made seminal contributions to the recognition and understanding of many other diseases, including;

• Alibert's disease I – a skin disease characterized by pinkish patches, bordered by a purplish halo
• Allgrove's syndrome – a congenital defect in lacrimation
• Rayer's disease – a disorder characterized by depigmented patches of skin, jaundice, and enlargement of the liver and spleen

Family

In 1847 Addison married at Lanercost Priory Elizabeth Catherine Hanxwell, a widow, with two children from her first marriage.

Further reading

• Benjamin, John (1970). "Addison, Thomas". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 59–60. ISBN 0-684-10114-9.

External links

• Addison's digitized works in the Iowa Digital Library
• Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1885). "Addison, Thomas" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 1. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Thomas Addison (1855). On The Constitutional And Local Effects Of Disease Of The Supra-Renal Capsules. London: Samuel Highley.
• Charles Douglas Wehner. "Curriculum Vitae". Retrieved 11 June 2006. – includes Biography
• Epitaph and gravestone at Lanercost Priory.