John A. Mac William: Scottish Pioneer of Cardiac Electrophysiology

摘要

John Alexander Mac William, a physiologist at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was the first person to propose that ventricular fibrillation was the most likely cause of sudden death.1 3 He also suggested transthoracic pacing to treat transient asystole. The son of a fanner, Mac William was born in Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire, Scotland, in 1857. An outstanding student, he was awarded M.B. and CM. degrees from the University of Aberdeen in 1880. After postgraduate work at the University of Edinburgh and University College, London, he worked with physiologist Hugo Kronecker at Bern and with German physiologist Carl Ludwig, director of the renowned Leipzig Physiological Institute. Ludwig was the world's leading physiologist during the second half of the nineteenth century.4 His 1847 invention of the kymograph, an instrument designed to record hemodynamic events over time, provided researchers with a powerful tool for studying cardiovascular physiology and pharmacology.