Editing Thomas Addison

{{short description|English physician and scientist}}
{{distinguish|Thomas Edison|Tom Addison}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Thomas Addison
| honorific_suffix   = [[Royal Medical Society|RMS]]
| image              = File:Thomas Addison2.jpg
| caption            = 
| birth_date         = April 1795
| birth_place        = [[Longbenton]], [[Northumberland]], England
| death_date         = {{d-da|29 June 1860|April 1795}}
| death_place        = [[Brighton]], [[Sussex]], England
| resting_place      = [[Lanercost Priory]]
| resting_place_coordinates = 
| occupation         = Physician
| alma_mater         = [[University of Edinburgh Medical School|University of Edinburgh]]
| known_for          = [[Addison's Disease]], [[Pernicious anemia]]
| spouse             = 
| signature          = Thomas Addison Signature.svg
| signature_size     = 150px
| children           = 
}}
'''Thomas Addison''' (April 1795{{spaced ndash}}29 June 1860) was an English physician and medical researcher. He is traditionally regarded as one of the "great men" of [[Guy's Hospital]] in London.

Thomas Addison began his career at Guy's Hospital in 1817, eventually becoming a full physician in 1837. He was a noted and respected lecturer and diagnostician. He experienced episodes of [[mental depression]] throughout his life, culminating in his suicide in 1860.

Addison's legacy includes the description of conditions such as [[Addison's disease]] (a degenerative disease of the adrenal glands), and [[pernicious anemia]], a hematological disorder later found to be caused by failure to absorb [[vitamin B12|vitamin B<sub>12</sub>]].

==Early years==
He was born in April 1795 in [[Longbenton|Long Benton]], nearby to the northeast of [[Newcastle upon Tyne]], the son of Joseph Addison, who was a grocer and flour dealer there.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=159|first=N. G.|last=Coley|title=Addison, Thomas (1795–1860)}}</ref> His father's family was [[Cumbrian]], and Thomas was attached to the family house at [[Banks, Cumbria|Banks]] near [[Lanercost]], as his personal background. Joseph Addison had married Sarah Shaw, and gone into the Shaw family business.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wilks |first1=Sir Samuel |last2=Bettany |first2=George Thomas |title=A Biographical History of Guy's Hospital |date=1892 |publisher=Ward, Lock, Bowden |pages=221–222 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aKBbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA221 |language=en}}</ref> 

Thomas Addison attended the Long Benton parish school, run by the parish clerk, Thomas Rutter.<ref>{{cite web |title=Rutter's School School House, Longbenton {{!}} Co-Curate |url=https://co-curate.ncl.ac.uk/rutters-school-school-house-longbenton/ |website=co-curate.ncl.ac.uk}}</ref> He then went to the [[Royal Grammar School, Newcastle|Royal Free Grammar School]] in Newcastle, where the headmaster was Edward Moises, nephew of the noted [[Hugh Moises]].<ref>{{acad|id=MSS779E|name=Moises, Edward}}</ref><ref>{{cite ODNB|id=18892|first=S. J.|last=Skedd|title=Moises, Hugh (1722–1806)}}</ref> There he gained a good knowledge of Latin.<ref name="ODNB"/>

==Medical student==
Addison entered the [[University of Edinburgh Medical School]] in 1812 as a medical student, turning down an offer from his father to make him a paying resident student of [[John Thomson (physician)|John Thomson]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lonsdale |first1=Henry |title=The worthies of Cumberland|volume=IV |date=1867 |publisher=George Routledge & Sons |location=London |page=263 |url=https://archive.org/details/worthiescumberl06lonsgoog/page/n263/mode/1up}}</ref> He became a member of the [[Royal Medical Society]]. In 1815, he received the degree of MD.  His thesis was on ''Dissertatio medica inauguralis quaedam de syphilide et hydrargyro complectens'' (''Concerning Syphilis and Mercury'').<ref name="ODNB"/>

There is a hiatus in the record of Addison's studies from 1815 to 1817. It has been suggested that he travelled in continental Europe.<ref name="Loriaux">{{cite book |last1=Loriaux |first1=D. Lynn |title=A Biographical History of Endocrinology |date=14 March 2016 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-119-20246-2 |page=82 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pkWhCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA82 |language=en}}</ref> He enrolled as a physician pupil at [[Guy's Hospital]] in London, 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." Subsequently he became a house surgeon (surgical resident) at the [[London Lock Hospital|Lock Hospital]].<ref name="Loriaux"/> He also took a position as physician to the Universal Dispensary founded by [[John Bunnell Davis]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Royal Kalendar and Court and City Register for England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Colonies |date=1820 |publisher=Wm. H. Allen |page=332 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zOcNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA332 |language=en}}</ref>

==Physician==
Addison obtained his licentiate from the [[Royal College of Physicians]] in 1819, where in 1838 he was elected a Fellow. He was promoted to assistant physician, with the support of [[Benjamin Harrison (hospital administrator)|Benjamin Harrison]], in January 1824 and in 1827 he was appointed lecturer of [[materia medica]].<ref name="ODNB"/> In 1849, he was President of the [[Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society]].

As well, Addison worked under [[Thomas Bateman (physician)|Thomas Bateman]], a [[dermatologist]], at the General or Public Dispensary on [[Carey Street]], [[Holborn]]. He was there for eight years and developed a special interest in skin diseases, and a reputation in the area.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Loriaux |first1=D. Lynn |title=A Biographical History of Endocrinology |date=14 March 2016 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-119-20246-2 |page=83 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pkWhCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA83 |language=en}}</ref> He bought a house in [[Hatton Garden]] in 1819, and from that time had a private practice.<ref name="ODNB"/> 

In 1837, Addison became joint lecturer with [[Richard Bright (physician)|Richard Bright]] on practical medicine, and 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.<ref name="ODNB"/>

Excelling as a diagnostician and lecturer, Addison was diffident. He had a reputation at Guy's, where he concentrated on his students and patients, but was little known outside the hospital, and had few private patients.<ref name="ODNB"/>

==Depression, death and memorial==
Thomas Addison suffered from episodes of [[clinical depression]] at the end of his life.<ref name="ODNB"/> In 1860 he wrote to his medical students as follows: "A considerable breakdown in my health has scared me from the anxieties, responsibilities, and excitement of my profession." Three months later, on 29 June 1860, he committed [[suicide]]. The day after his death, the ''[[Brighton Herald]]'' recorded that: 

<blockquote>"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."</blockquote>

Addison was buried in the churchyard of [[Lanercost Priory]] in [[Cumberland]].<ref name="ODNB"/> Guy's 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.

==Research==
In researching [[pernicious anemia]], Addison in 1849 came across the changed "bronzed" appearance of the [[adrenal glands]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kronenberg |first1=Henry M. |title=Williams Textbook of Endocrinology E-Book |date=30 November 2007 |publisher=Elsevier Health Sciences |isbn=978-1-4377-2181-2 |page=446 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=stcoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA446 |language=en}}</ref> What is now called Addison's disease, sometimes called bronze skin disease, is the progressive destruction of the glands, resulting in [[adrenocortical hormone]] deficiency. Addison described this condition in his 1855 publication: ''On the Constitutional and Local Effects of Disease of the Suprarenal Capsules.''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rosenthal |first1=Moriz |last2=Putzel |first2=Leopold |title=A Clinical Treatise on the Diseases of the Nervous System |date=1879 |publisher=Wood |page=538 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nN8VAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA538 |language=en}}</ref> The function of the glands, known as suprarenal capsules, was at that time unknown. After Addison's work, it was concluded that they were essential to life.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Huth |first1=Edward J. |last2=Murray |first2=T. J. |title=Medicine in Quotations: Views of Health and Disease Through the Ages |date=2006 |publisher=ACP Press |isbn=978-1-930513-67-9 |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3cM8jVGr4qEC&pg=PA6 |language=en}}</ref> An [[Addisonian crisis]] (or Addison's crisis) is an acute, life-threatening crisis caused by Addison's disease.

Pernicious anemia as described in 1849 by Addison is now also known as Addison-Biermer disease. It is a type of [[megaloblastic anemia]], in which a lack of [[intrinsic factor]] causes absorption of [[vitamin B12|vitamin B<sub>12</sub>]] to be impaired. It is caused by a lack of [[parietal cell]]s in the stomach.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lakshmanaswamy |first1=Aruchamy |title=Clinical Pediatrics: History Taking and Case Discussions |date=2022 |publisher=Wolters Kluwer India Pvt Ltd |isbn=978-93-90612-45-1 |page=623 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_UlVEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA623 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1829, Addison published a study of the actions of [[poison]]s.<ref>''An essay on the operation of poisonous agents upon the living body'' ([https://archive.org/stream/b21473195#page/n3/mode/2up online])</ref> He gave one of the first adequate accounts of [[appendicitis]], in 1839.<ref name="ODNB"/> In the classification of skin diseases by morphology, and their diagnosis, he was a follower of [[Robert Willan]] and his own teacher Thomas Bateman.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jackson |first1=Scott |title=Skin Disease and the History of Dermatology: Order out of Chaos |date=15 September 2022 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-000-64401-2 |page=339 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rR9-EAAAQBAJ&pg=PT339 |language=en}}</ref>

==Works==
* [https://archive.org/details/acollectionpubl00wilkgoog ''A Collection of the published writings of the late Thomas Addison, M.D.''] 1868, edited by Thomas Mee Daldy and Samuel Wilks

==Family==
In 1847 Addison married at Lanercost Priory Elizabeth Catherine Hauxwell, a widow, with two children from her first marriage.<ref name="ODNB"/> His stepdaughter Sarah married in 1863 the Rev. Thomas Dodgson, a Durham University graduate.<ref>{{cite news |title=Births, Deaths and Marriages |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000242/18630812/037/0003 |work=Newcastle Journal |date=12 August 1863|page=3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Edinburgh |first1=Peter Bell |title=Crockford's Clerical Directory for 1865: Being a Biographical and Statistical Book of Reference for Facts Relating to the Clergy and the Church |date=1865 |publisher=Horace Cox |isbn=978-1-871538-21-2 |page=180 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dxLXqgHunigC&pg=PA180 |language=en}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite encyclopedia
  | last = Benjamin
  | first = John
  | title = Addison, Thomas
  | encyclopedia = [[Dictionary of Scientific Biography]]
  | volume = 1
  | pages = 59–60
  | publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons
  | location = New York
  | year = 1970
  | isbn = 0-684-10114-9
 }}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=exact&CISOOP2=all&CISOFIELD1=creato&CISOBOX1=Addison%2C+Thomas%2C+1793-1860&CISOROOT=/jmrbr Addison's digitized works in the Iowa Digital Library]
* {{DNB Cite|wstitle=Addison, Thomas|volume=1}}
* {{cite book | author = Thomas Addison | title = On The Constitutional And Local Effects Of Disease Of The Supra-Renal Capsules | year = 1855 | url = http://www.wehner.org/addison/x1.htm | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20021228014635/http://wehner.org/addison/x1.htm | url-status = usurped | archive-date = 28 December 2002 | publisher = Samuel Highley | location = London}}
* [http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=a7f81b4e-6e19-4e05-b340-a646440d941d   Epitaph] and gravestone at Lanercost Priory.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Addison, Thomas}}
[[Category:1795 births]]
[[Category:1860 deaths]]
[[Category:British endocrinologists]]
[[Category:19th-century English medical doctors]]
[[Category:People from Longbenton]]
[[Category:People educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Medical School]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College London]]
[[Category:History of mental health in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Suicides by jumping in England]]
[[Category:Burials in Cumbria]]
[[Category:Physicians of Guy's Hospital]]
[[Category:1860s suicides]]