Thomas Hodgkin: the “man” and “his disease”: humani nihil a se alienum putabit (nothing human was foreign to him)

摘要

Thomas Hodgkin (1798–1865) was one of the leading physicians and scientists of the nineteenth century. A renowned diagnostician, he carried out pioneering work in public health, but devoted the greater part of his career to the study of pathology. His contributions transcend many fields, medical and non-medical, but his most important legacy to medical science was the recognition of the disease that bears his name. The diagnosis of Hodgkin’s disease was difficult pending recognition of the “peculiar giant cells” that came to characterize the diagnosis. With identification of the Reed–Sternberg cell, it might have been expected that debate concerning the nature of Hodgkin’s disease would be stilled. History proved to the contrary. A fierce controversy ignited with respect to the cellular origin of the Reed–Sternberg cell and the relationship, if any, of Hodgkin’s disease to other malignant processes arising in the “absorbent glands and spleen.” For a century, arguments ebbed and flowed, reflective of individual opinions and changing concepts, yielding ultimately to new methods for examining and identifying cells.