Thomas Lewis: Physiologist, Cardiologist, and Clinical Scientist

Sir Thomas Lewis: pioneer cardiologist and clinical scientist

demonstration of transmissibility of a chicken sarcoma via cell-free filtrates, and his later work on the concept of carcinogenesis as a two-stage mechanism. But Saunders has already disarmingly apologized for any omissions which may have accidentally occurred; and we can only congratulate him on the vast amount of information he has singlehandedly accumulated for the benefit of present and fut...

Thomas G. Pickering: friend, colleague and scientist.

We, in common with many others, realized that with his passing, an era in hypertension research had also ended, and that it would be remiss of us and of ‘Blood Pressure Monitoring’ on which he served with us as a senior editor for so many years, if we did not pay tribute to his remarkable achievements. We acknowledge it as a tribute to the friendship and respect that Tom inspired across the wor...

Sir Thomas Lewis ( 1881 – 1945 )

The poor prognosis associated with chaotic irregularity of the pulse was clearly known by most of ancient physicians. Perhaps the earliest description of atrial fibrillation is in Chinese, in The Yellow Emperors Classic of Internal Medicine, but in recorded history, William Harvey in 1628 was probably the first to describe ‘fibrillation of the auricles’ in animals. The first electrocardiographi...

Thomas Lewis-the early years.

Lewis Thomas and droopy rabbit ears

Tissue injury can occur when the immune system gets over-activated. The first clues to the cause of this immunemediated damage came in the early 1950s from studies of rheumatic fever—a complication of Streptococcal infections that results in tissue destruction in the heart, skin, and joints. Heart lesions typical of rheumatic fever could be induced in experimental animals injected with bacteria...