Joseph Arthur Arkwright

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Portrait of Joseph Arthur Arkwright (1933). J.A. Arkwright bacteriologist (1933).jpg
Portrait of Joseph Arthur Arkwright (1933).

Sir Joseph Arthur Arkwright MA MD MRCS FRCP FRS (22 March 1864 – 22 November 1944) was a medical doctor. He was forced to give up his work due to severe dermatitis. He became a bacteriologist and from 1906 joined the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, first as a voluntary worker, then as assistant bacteriologist from 1908. [1] [2] [3]

Fellow of the Royal Society Elected Fellow of the Royal Society, including Honorary, Foreign and Royal Fellows

Fellowship of the Royal Society is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of London judges to have made a 'substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science and medical science'.

Dermatitis skin disease

Dermatitis, also known as eczema, is a group of diseases that results in inflammation of the skin. These diseases are characterized by itchiness, red skin and a rash. In cases of short duration, there may be small blisters, while in long-term cases the skin may become thickened. The area of skin involved can vary from small to the entire body.

Contents

Early life and education

He was born at Thurlaston, Leicestershire, England, the youngest of the five children of Arthur William Arkwright, a farmer, of Broughton Hall, Astley, Leicestershire and his wife and second cousin, Emma, daughter of John Wolley, of Beeston, Nottinghamshire. His mother died in 1866. His great-great-grandfather was Sir Richard Arkwright the inventor of textile manufacturing machinery.

Thurlaston, Leicestershire village and civil parish in Leicestershire, England

Thurlaston is a village and civil parish in Leicestershire, England. It is in the Blaby local government district, just over 6 miles (9.7 km) west of the City of Leicester. The 2001 census stated that the parish had a population of 745, The 2011 census gave the population as 807.

Leicestershire County of England

Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warwickshire to the south-west, Staffordshire to the west, and Derbyshire to the north-west. The border with most of Warwickshire is Watling Street.

Nottinghamshire County of England

Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditional county town is Nottingham, though the county council is based in West Bridgford in the borough of Rushcliffe, at a site facing Nottingham over the River Trent.

He was educated at Wellington College and Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he took the natural sciences tripos in 1884–6 with zoology his major subject. He completed his medical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital (Barts), London, qualifying in 1889. [1]

Wellington College, Berkshire school in the village of Crowthorne in Berkshire, England

Wellington College is an English co-educational day and boarding independent school in the village of Crowthorne, Berkshire. Wellington is a registered charity and currently has about 1,050 pupils aged between 13 and 18. It was built as a national monument to the first Duke of Wellington (1769–1852), after whom the College is named. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone in 1856 and inaugurated the School's public opening on 29 January 1859.

Trinity College, Cambridge constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. With around 600 undergraduates, 300 graduates, and over 180 fellows, it is the largest college in either of the Oxbridge universities by number of undergraduates. In terms of total student numbers, it is second only to Homerton College, Cambridge.

St Bartholomews Hospital Hospital in London

St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust.

Career

He held posts at Barts and later at the West London Hospital in Hammersmith and the Victoria Hospital for Children, in Fulham. Later he settled in general practice at Halesowen, then in Worcestershire, now part of the West Midlands. However, after he suffered severe dermatitis and was forced to give up general practice. [1]

West London Hospital Hospital in England

The West London Hospital was founded in 1856 at as the Fulham and Hammersmith General Dispensary, which was housed in a small 6-roomed building in Queen Street, Hammersmith. It catered for acute conditions and later for geriatric, maternity, rehabilitation and long-stay conditions.

Hammersmith district in west London, England

Hammersmith is a district of west London, England, located 4.3 miles (6.9 km) west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.

Victoria Hospital for Children Hospital in London

The Victoria Hospital for Children, which later merged into St George's Hospital, was a hospital in Tite Street, London.

In 1906 he joined the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, first as a voluntary worker, then as assistant bacteriologist from 1908. His early work considered the spread of diphtheria in schools and the differentiation of meningococcus strains. In 1915 he studied an epidemic of cerebrospinal meningitis among troops camped on Salisbury Plain. In 1915 during the First World War he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and was posted to Malta. There he was pathologist in charge of the laboratory at St George's Hospital. He made observations on convalescent carriers in bacillary dysentery and also blackwater fever. In 1918 he was appointed a member of the War Office committee on trench fever. Together with Arthur Bacot and F. Martin Duncan he demonstrated the association of the trench fever virus with Rickettsia quintana in lice. [1]

Diphtheria Infectious disease

Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Signs and symptoms may vary from mild to severe. They usually start two to five days after exposure. Symptoms often come on fairly gradually, beginning with a sore throat and fever. In severe cases, a grey or white patch develops in the throat. This can block the airway and create a barking cough as in croup. The neck may swell in part due to enlarged lymph nodes. A form of diphtheria that involves the skin, eyes, or genitals also exists. Complications may include myocarditis, inflammation of nerves, kidney problems, and bleeding problems due to low levels of platelets. Myocarditis may result in an abnormal heart rate and inflammation of the nerves may result in paralysis.

Royal Army Medical Corps military unit

The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. Together with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps and Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, the RAMC forms the Army Medical Services.

Malta island republic in Europe

Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km (50 mi) south of Italy, 284 km (176 mi) east of Tunisia, and 333 km (207 mi) north of Libya. With a population of about 475,000 over an area of 316 km2 (122 sq mi), Malta is the world's tenth smallest and fifth most densely populated country. Its capital is Valletta, which is the smallest national capital in the European Union by area at 0.8 km.2 The official languages are Maltese and English, with Maltese officially recognised as the national language and the only Semitic language in the European Union.

His most important work was bacterial variation. He noted variants as R and S (rough and smooth) in bacilli of the dysentery and enteric group. [1]

In 1922 he went with Bacot to Cairo to investigate the cause of typhus fever. After two months' work they both contracted the disease. Bacot died, and Arkwright recovered after a long illness. [1]

On return to the Lister, he investigated animal diseases including foot-and-mouth. From 1925 onwards he was a member of the Ministry of Agriculture's committee on the disease. He became its chairman in 1931. [1]

He was a member of the Medical Research Council from 1930–34 and the Agricultural Research Council from 1931–40. He was chairman of the committee on Brucella abortus infection and on Johne's disease (Paratuberculosis). He also chaired the joint committee on tuberculosis. [1]

He retired from the Lister in 1927 but continued to work as an honorary member and represented the Royal Society on the Lister governing body from 1932-44. He had produced over fifty papers on bacteriology and immunology. [1]

Honours

He was appointed FRCP in 1916, FRS in 1926, and was knighted in 1937. [4] He died in King's College Hospital, south London. [1]

Personal life

In 1893, he married Ruth (d. 1950), daughter of Joseph William Wilson, a civil engineer. They had three daughters, two of whom became doctors.

Publications

The Carrier Problem in Infectious Diseases Authors: John Charles Grant Ledingham FRS and Joseph Arkwright: Original publication c.1923 ISBN   1116754967 ISBN   978-1116754964

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