- A dictionary of medical eponyms

George Harley

Born  1829
Died  1896

Related eponyms

Scottish physician, born February 12, 1829, Haddington, East Lothian; died October 27, 1896.

Biography of George Harley

George Harley began his medical studies in Edinburgh at the age of seventeen. In 1850, whilst he was still a student at the maternity hospital, one of the expectant mothers died of a heart attack. Harley, without assistance or previous experience, successfully performed a Caesarean section and delivered a living child!

Harley received his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in 1850 and became a resident at the Royal Infirmary. He

Harley then went abroad for further studies in France, Germany and Italy... In Paris he studied in the laboratories of Charles-Philippe Robin (1821-1885), François Verdeil, and Charles Adolphe Wurtz (1817-1884) and François Magendie (1783-1855). Following Magendie's retirement a few months later, Harley worked with hiss successor Claude Bernard (1813-1878).

Harley next spent two years in Germany. At Würzburg he worked with professor Johann Joseph von Scherer (1814-1869), a recognized authority on urine pigments who had initially questioned his findings when he worked with Wurtz, that iron was a normal constituent of urine and that there was a pigment in urine which he called urohaematin (presumably urobilinogen) which was derived from the breakdown products of the red cell. After having worked with Harley, Scherer agreed that his findings had been correct and that iron was a normal constituent in both blood and urine. Whilst there Harley worked with Rudolf Albert von Kölliker (1817-1905) in histology and met Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902).

In Heidelberg he worked in Robert Wilhelm Bunsen’s (1811-1899) laboratory, acquiring the techniques of gas analysis. His next stop was the University of Padua, but he was disappointed of the standard of the faculty and stayed only a few days before he returned to England in 1855. He then became curator of the anatomical museum at the University College and lecturer on practical physiology and histology. Soon after he published a paper which proved Heinrich Gustav Magnus’ (1802-1870) theory that respired oxygen formed a chemical combination with blood constituents (namely haemoglobin). This was at the time revolutionary research and resulted in his election as a fellow of the Royal Society.

Following the famous case in which William Palmer (1824-1856) was convicted of poisoning his friend John Parsons Cook with strychnine in 1856, Harley commenced investigations on the toxicology of this substance and developed an interest in poisons. He was the first to show that animals poisoned with strychnine could be saved by administration of the arrow poison curare.

Harley, whose name is now associated with the most prestigious address in medicine, was no success as a practitioner. During his first 12 months in practice he saw only two patients. The change came when he caught the attention of the then president of the Pathological Society

In 1856 Harley opened practice, but initially had little success, for twelve months he saw only two patients. However, in December that year at a meeting of the Pathological Society, he caught the attention of the Society's president, Sir Thomas Watson (1792-1882), who from then on used Harley as a consultant, not only in patients with liver disease, but also those with kidney trouble.

In 1859 Harley was appointed professor of medical jurisprudence at the University College. At that time he postulated that the reason why the stomach is not itself digests is because of a protective layer of alkaline mucus which is rapidly replaced. In 1861 he received the tri-annual prize of the Royal College of Surgeons for his treatise On the anatomy and physiology of the supra-renal bodies. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1854 and in 1865 of the Royal Society.

At this time his eyes were exhausted from his work at the microscope, and he had to spend nine months in total darkness. After his convalescence he wrote a book on his experiences in the dark.

Like many of his day, Harley was interested in the unusual and sometimes extraordinary manifestations of hysteria. In 1863 he published a story of a 33 year old woman who made an extraordinarily loud noise from her vagina by expelling gas, and demonstrated by gas analysis that this was simply air which had previously sucked in by voluntary contractions of her abdominal muscles!

Apart from his medical contributions Harley wrote a number of short stories.

Harley was a strong protagonist of cremation and after a peculiar neurological problem towards the end of his life which resulted in difficulties in walking, he died suddenly. He was cremated at his own wish and buried in Woking cemetery.

Bibliography

  • Researches on the colouring principle of urine.
    The Pharmaceutical Journal, London, 1852.

  • Recherches sur la physiologie di diabète sucré, nouvelle méthode pour produire artificiellement le diabète chez les animaux.
    Comptes rendus de la Société de biologie, Paris, 1853.
  • On the anatomy and physiology of the supra-renal bodies.
    Prize-winning treatise, 1861.
  • Jaundice; its pathology and treatment: with the application of physiological chemistry to the detection and treatment of diseases of the liver and pancreas.
    London, Walton & Maberly, 1863.

  • On the influence of Physical and Chemical Agents upon Blood; with special references to the mutual action of the Blood and the respiratiory Gases.
    Philosophical

    Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1865: 687-724.
  • Albuminuria, with and without dropsy; etc. London, 1866.
  • Diabetes; its various forms and different treatments. London, 1866.
  • Histological Demonstrations; a Guide to the Microscopical Examination of the Animal Tissues in Health and Disease for the Use of the Medical and Veterinary Professions. Being the Substance of Lectures delivered by George Harley, M.D., F.R.S. Edited by George T. Brown (1827-1906).
    London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1866. 268 pages.

  • Autoclinical remarks on injury of the retina from overwork with the microscope. Lancet, 1868.
  • The urine and its derangements etc. Philadelphia, 1872.
  • The simplification of English spelling,: Specially adapted for the rising generation. An easy way of saving time in writing, printing, and reading. 1877. 115 pages.
  • The diseases of the liver: With and without jaundice, with the special application of physiological chemistry to their diagnosis and treatment.
    London, P. Blakiston, 1883. 571 pages.
    Harley's magnum opus. Biographical:
  • Barry G. Firkin and Judith A. Whitworth:
    Dictionary of Medical Eponyms.
    The Parthenon Publishing Group. 1989. New edition in 2002.
    The main source for this article.
  • Julius Leopold Pagel (1851-1912), publisher:
    Biographisches Lexikon hervorragender Ärzte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts.
    Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin and Vienna, 1901.
  • August Hirsch (1817-1894), publisher:
    Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte aller Zeiten und Völker.
    2nd edition. Berlin, Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1929.
    First published in 6 volumes 1884-1888. 3rd edition, München 1962.
  • W. Haberling and H. Vierordt::
    Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte aller Zeiten und Völker. Ergänzungsband. Berlin and Vienna, 1935.
  • Harry Wain (1907-1970):
    The Story Behind the Word. Some Interesting Origins of Medical Terms.
    Springfield, Illinois, Charles C. Thomas, 1958.
  • Barry G. Firkin and Judith A. Whitworth:
    Dictionary of Medical Eponyms.
    The Parthenon Publishing Group. 1989. New edition in 2002.
  • George Harley of Harley Street. No author listed.
    JAMA, Chicago, February 15, 1965, 191: 594-595.
  • A. Paton:
    George Harley (1829-1896).
    The Practitioner, London, December 1979, 223 (1338): 849-851.

What is an eponym?

An eponym is a word derived from the name of a person, whether real or fictional. A medical eponym is thus any word related to medicine, whose name is derived from a person.

What is Whonamedit?

Whonamedit.com is a biographical dictionary of medical eponyms. It is our ambition to present a complete survey of all medical phenomena named for a person, with a biography of that person.

Disclaimer:

Whonamedit? does not give medical advice.
This survey of medical eponyms and the persons behind them is meant as a general interest site only. No information found here must under any circumstances be used for medical purposes, diagnostically, therapeutically or otherwise. If you, or anybody close to you, is affected, or believe to be affected, by any condition mentioned here: see a doctor.