Thomas Addison

Not to be confused with Thomas Edison.

Thomas Addison (April 1793 29 June 1860) was a
renowned 19th-century English physician and scientist.
He is traditionally regarded as one of the great men of
Guys Hospital in London.
Among other pathologies he discovered Addisons disease (a degenerative disease of the adrenal glands) and
Addisonian anemia (pernicious anemia), a hematological disorder later found to be caused by failure to absorb
vitamin B12.

The early years

Thomas Addison was born in April 1793, but his exact

birthdate is not known. He was born in Longbenton, near
Newcastle upon Tyne, the son of Sarah and Joseph Addison, a grocer and our dealer in Long Benton. He attended the local Thomas Rutter school and then went to
the Royal Free Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne.
He learned Latin so well that he made notes in Latin and Thomas Addison
spoke it uently.
Addisons father wanted him to become a lawyer, but he
entered the University of Edinburgh Medical School in
1812 as a medical student. 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).

his entrance as follows: Dec. 13, 1817, from Edinburgh,

T. Addison, M.D., paid pounds 22-1s to be a perpetual
Physicians pupil. Addison obtained his licentiateship in
the Royal College of Physicians in 1819 and some years
later was elected a fellow of the Royal College.
Addison 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 Guys Hospital. When Bright retired from the lectureship in 1840 Addison became sole
lecturer. He held this position until about 185455. At
that time, when medical students paid fees for separate
courses of lectures, they searched throughout the city for
the most attractive teachers. Addison was a brilliant lecturer. He attracted a large number of medical students to
his lectures.

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 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 rst
to describe the changes in skin pigmentation typical of
what is now called Addisons disease.

Thomas Addison was a superb diagnostician but rather a

shy and taciturn man and had a small practice, at a time
2 Guys Hospital
when physicians of his position usually had large practices. He was one of the most respected physicians at the
Addisons memorable career as a physician and scientist Guys Hospital, where he exerted a great deal of inuis usually dated to 1817 when he enrolled as a physician ence, devoting himself almost wholly to his students and
pupil at Guys Hospital. Guys Medical School recorded patients. He was described as the type of doctor who is
1

EXTERNAL LINKS

always trying to discover the change in a piece of machin(bronze skin disease) and cerebral sclerosis Also
ery rather than one who, like his contemporary Benjamin
known as Adrenoleukodystrophy.
Guy Babington, regarded his patients as suering, sensitive human beings.
Addison gave one of the rst adequate accounts of
appendicitis and wrote a valuable study of the actions
of poisons. He also made seminal contributions to the
recognition and understanding of many other diseases, in3 Death
cluding;
Thomas Addison suered from many episodes of marked
depression. It would seem 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 Guys 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:
He was buried in the churchyard of Lanercost Priory. 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.

Aliberts disease I a skin disease characterized by

pinkish patches, bordered by a purplish halo
Allgroves syndrome a congenital defect in
lacrimation
Rayers disease a disorder characterized by depigmented patches of skin, jaundice, and enlargement
of the liver and spleen

5 Further reading
Benjamin, John (1970).
Addison, Thomas.
Dictionary of Scientic Biography 1. New York:
Charles Scribners Sons. pp. 5960. ISBN 0-68410114-9.

6 External links
4

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:
Addisons disease, sometimes called bronze skin disease progressive destruction of the adrenal glands
with the result being deciency of secretion of
adrenocortical hormones. Addison described this
condition in his 1855 publication: On the Constitutional and Local Eects of Disease of the Suprarenal
Capsules.
Addisonian crisis (or Addisons crisis) an acute,
life-threatening crisis caused by Addisons disease.
Addisonism a set of symptoms resembling Addisons disease but not due to Addisons 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 deciency. Described rst in
1849.
Addison-Schilder syndrome is a metabolic disorder
combining the characteristics of Addisons disease

Addisons digitized works in the Iowa Digital Library

"Addison, Thomas". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 18851900.
Thomas Addison (1855). On The Constitutional And
Local Eects 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.

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

Thomas Addison Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Addison?oldid=719817387 Contributors: Kpjas, Rsabbatini, Sannse,

Notheruser, BRG, Charles Matthews, Rbraunwa, Phoebe, Anjouli, Bearcat, JackofOz, Jfdwol, Necrothesp, TonyW, Klemen Kocjancic,
D6, Brian0918, Lankiveil, Davidruben, TBHecht, FlaBot, Who, Jaraalbe, Charleswehner, Jaxl, Moe Epsilon, Nlu, Whobot, Mais oui!,
SmackBot, Collieman, Chris the speller, Sbharris, MisterHand, OrphanBot, Snowmanradio, Gobonobo, Neddyseagoon, Jetman, Joseph
Solis in Australia, Igoldste, Adam sk, CmdrObot, Cydebot, Juansempere, Pustelnik, RobotG, Paste, Rie, Hassocks5489, Magioladitis,
Vernon39, Spellmaster, Flaming Ferrari, Tonicthebrown, VolkovBot, WOSlinker, TXiKiBoT, Ridernyc, Ferengi, BOTijo, Doc James,
PolarBot, Oda Mari, ClueBot, Excirial, Alexbot, Captain108, DaL33T, Kbdankbot, Addbot, DrJos, MrOllie, Tide rolls, Lightbot, Ettrig,
AnakngAraw, AnomieBOT, Materialscientist, ArthurBot, Gilo1969, Jsmith1000, J JMesserly, Omnipaedista, FrescoBot, Riversian7, Fulldate unlinking bot, Dinamik-bot, Flettac, RjwilmsiBot, EmausBot, ZroBot, PBS-AWB, Tolly4bolly, Helpful Pixie Bot, Th4n3r, SD5bot,
VIAFbot, 17A Africa, Liamkasbar, KasparBot and Anonymous: 41

7.2

Images

File:Commons-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

File:Text_document_with_red_question_mark.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Text_document_
with_red_question_mark.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Created by bdesham with Inkscape; based upon Text-x-generic.svg
from the Tango project. Original artist: Benjamin D. Esham (bdesham)
File:ThomasAddison.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/ThomasAddison.jpg License: CC BY 4.0 Contributors: [1], [2] Original artist: H. Watkins
File:Thomas_Addison2.jpg
Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Thomas_Addison2.jpg
License:
CC BY 4.0 Contributors:
http://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/V0025949.html Original artist:
Unknown<a
href='//www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718'
title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img
alt='wikidata:Q4233718'
src='https:
//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/20px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png'
width='20'
height='11'
srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png
1.5x,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/40px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 2x' data-le-width='1050'
data-le-height='590' /></a>

7.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0