Campbell De Morgan

Campbell Greig De Morgan(22 November 1811 – 12 April 1876) was a British surgeon who first speculated that cancer arose locally and then spread, first to thelymph nodesand then more widely in the body. His name is used to describe the non cancerousCampbell de Morgan spot;bright red spots that may appear on the skin in later life and which he was the first to note in medical literature.

Life

He was born in 1811 atClovellynearBideford,Devon, England in 1811, youngest of three sons of Colonel John de Morgan (1772-1816), of the Indian Army, and Elizabeth (1776-1856), daughter of John Dodson and granddaughter of the mathematicianJames Dodson.The de Morgan family, ofHuguenotorigin, had a long association with theBritish East India Company.The mathematicianAugustus De Morganwas an older brother.^[1]

He trained atUniversity College Hospital,London and went on to be a house surgeon at theMiddlesex Hospitalwhere he remained for the rest of his career. He was actively involved in the Middlesex Hospital Medical School from its foundation in 1835 and was a close associate of its founder, SirCharles Bell.

In 1841 he became a lecturer inforensic medicineand in 1845 professor ofanatomy.In 1861, on the basis of a paper on the structure and development of bone, he was elected aFellow of the Royal Society.

He also pursued an interest in the arts. He was a talented musician who studied thescience of music,and was a giftedcaricaturist.

His death in 1876 was caused by his sitting up throughout the night of 6 April at the bedside of his close friend, the artistJohn Graham Lough.Lough was critically ill withpneumoniaand died the following morning. De Morgan himself then developed pneumonia andpleurisyfrom which he himself died on 12 April.

He was married to Kate Hudson and they had two sons Walter and John.

A bust of Campbell De Morgan by John Graham Lough is located at the Middlesex Hospital, London.

References

^"Morgan, Campbell Greig de (1811–1876), surgeon".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7471.ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)

Campbell De Morgan's 'Observations on cancer', and their relevance todayJohn M Grange MSc MD, John L Stanford MD, Cynthia A Stanford SRN, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2002 95: 296–299. Accessed May 2007
Oxford Biography index entry
Descendants of John de Morgan.The De Morgan family tree from 1684, (see Campbell Greig DE MORGAN, b. 22 Nov 1811). Researched by Daniel Morgan. Accessed May 2007.

External links

Photo of the bust of Campbell de Morganat the Middlesex Hospital, London.

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[1] "Morgan, Campbell Greig de (1811–1876), surgeon".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7471.ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)

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