Thomas Lewis (cardiologist): Difference between revisions

{{short description|BritishWelsh cardiologist (1881-1945)}}

Lewis was born in [[Taffs Well]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Obituary|journal=British Medical Journal|date=March 31, 1945|volume=461|issue=British Medical Journal|pages=1|url=http://www.bmj.com/content/1/4395/461|access-date=17 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://biography.wales/article/s2-LEWI-THO-1881|website=The National Library of Wales|access-date=17 June 2015|title=The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Hollman|first1=Arthur|title=Sir Thomas Lewis : pioneer cardiologist and clinical scientist|date=1997|publisher=Springer|location=London|isbn=978-3540760498}}</ref> [[Cardiff]], [[Wales]], the son of Henry Lewis, a mining engineer, and his wife Catherine Hannah (née Davies). He was educated at home by his mother, apart from a year at [[Clifton College]],<ref>"Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p180: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948</ref> which he left due to ill-health, and the final two years by a tutor. Already planning to become a doctor, at the age of sixteen he began a [[Bachelor of Science]] (BSc) course at [[University College, Cardiff]], graduating three years later with first class honours. In 1902 he entered [[University College Hospital]] (UCH) in [[London]] to train as a doctor, graduating [[MBBS]] with the gold medal in 1905. The same year he was awarded a [[Doctor of Science]] (DSc) degree from the [[University of Wales]] for his research work.

HeLewis remained at UCH for the rest of his life, beginning as a [[Foundation house officer|house physician]]. From 1907 he also worked at the [[Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich]] and the [[London Chest Hospital|City of London Hospital]] and the same year he took his [[Doctor of Medicine]] (MD) degree. In 1911 he was appointed lecturer in cardiac [[pathology]] at UCH and in 1913 was promoted to assistant physician in clinical work. He was elected [[Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians]] (FRCP) in 1913.

While still a house physician, Lewis began [[physiology|physiological]] research, carrying out fundamental research on the heart, the [[pulse]] and [[blood pressure]]. From 1906, he corresponded with the Dutch physiologist [[Willem Einthoven]] concerning the latter's invention of the string galvanometer and [[electrocardiography]], and Lewis pioneered its use in clinical settings. Accordingly, Lewis is considered the "father of clinical cardiac electrophysiology". The first use of electrocardiography in clinical medicine was in 1908. In that year, Thomas Lewis and [[Arthur MacNalty]] (later the [[Chief Medical Officer (United Kingdom)|Chief Medical Officer of the United Kingdom]]) employed electrocardiography to diagnose [[heart block]].<ref>”A note on the simultaneous occurrence of sinus and ventricular rhythm in man”, Lewis T, Macnalty AS, ''J. Physiol.'' 1908 Dec 15;37(5–6):445-58</ref> In 1909, with [[Sir James Mackenzie|James MacKenzie]], Lewis founded the journal ''Heart: A Journal for the Study of the Circulation'', which he renamed ''[[Clinical Science (journal)|Clinical Science]]'' in 1933. In 1913, he published the book ''Clinical Electrocardiography'', the first treaty on electrocardiography. Lewis was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] (FRS) in 1918.<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Drury | first1 = A. N. | last2 = Grant | first2 = R. T. | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1945.0012 | title = Thomas Lewis. 1881-1945 | journal = [[Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 5 | issue = 14 | pages = 179 | year = 1945 | s2cid = 72220548 }}</ref> He was promoted to full physician at UCH in 1919.

[[File:The soldier's heart and the effort syndrome Wellcome L0027240.jpg|thumb|The soldier's heart and the effort syndrome]][[File:Thomas Lewis electrocardiograph (2).jpeg|alt=Electrocardiograph, a large wooden, workbench-like machine, with metal switches on the front face|thumb|Electrocardiograph, used by Sir Thomas Lewis at University College Hospital, London, by the Cambridge Instrument Co. 1930.]]

During the [[First World War]], Lewis worked at the [[Military Heart Hospital]] in [[Hampstead]] and was appointed toas the first full-timeDirector clinical research post in Britain, atof the Medical Research Committee (MRC, later [[Medical Research Council (United Kingdom)|Medical Research Council]]) Department of Clinical Science at UCH, which was the first MRC Research Unit established in Britain.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Archives |first=The National |title=The Discovery Service |url=https://discovery-cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1264 |access-date=2024-11-26 |website=discovery-cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref> He directed a study of the condition known as "soldier's heart" and, having established it was not a cardiological problem, renamed it the "[[effort syndrome]]".<ref name="DNB" /> In 1918 he wrote the monograph ''The Soldier's Heart and the Effort Syndrome''. He devised remedial exercises that allowed many soldiers suffering from the condition to return to duty and was appointed honorary consulting physician to the [[Ministry of Pensions]] in April 1919, and for this work he was appointed [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in January 1920<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=31760 |date=27 January 1920|page=1237 |supp=y}}</ref> and was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in the [[1921 Birthday Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32346 |supp=y|page=4531|date=4 June 1921}}</ref>

Lewis suffered a [[myocardial infarction]] at the age of 45 and gave up his 70-cigarette-a-day habit, being one of the first to realise that smoking damaged the blood vessels.<ref name="DNB" /> He died from [[coronary heart disease]] at his home at [[Loudwater, Hertfordshire]], on 17 March 1945, at age 63.

HeLewis married Alice Lorna Treharne James in 1916. They had three children.

==References See also ==