SummaryWilliam Hewson has been called the father of haematology. Initially working alongside the Hunter brothers in London in the mid-18th century, he advanced our knowledge of red and white cells (but mistakenly thought some red cells started as white cells and could not recognise different varieties of white corpuscles), showed that it was fibrinogen and not the cells that led to coagulation, greatly advanced our knowledge of the lymphatic system in humans, fishes and amphibians, explored the functions of the thymus and spleen and, investigated pneumothorax and surgical emphysema. His life, cut short at 35 years, was often intertwined with those of the Hunters, Alexander Monro secundus and Benjamin Franklin. This paper reviews his work, his relationships and his impact on a nascent science.

Summary This paper looks at arsenic, and in particular the trioxide, from the days of the ancient Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, through the 17th–20th centuries to its adoption by today’s haematologists. It looks at its commercial and medical uses, past and present, its notoriety as a poison, it’s reputation as a ‘tonic’ and therapeutic agent, many of the famous people associated with it including Thomas Fowler, William Withering and Robert Christison, and the promise an 18th century panacea now offers 21st century patients under the care of today’s haematologists and tomorrow’s oncologists.

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SummaryThomas Addis came of evangelical Scots stock; he was brought up to care for others less fortunate than himself, to know what he believed in and to defend it vigorously. Trained at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in a Scotland still recovering from wars and ecclesiastical schisms, yet producing record numbers of missionaries and many social improvements, he was a brilliant haematologist and innovative researcher. Moving to Stanford his career continued to blossom as a nephrologist whilst his concern for the less fortunate found expression in his espousal of communist principles. Only in his later years was he finally honoured for his many contributions to medicine, science and social issues.

Many eighteenth and early nineteenth century doctors, particularly those associated with the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, seem to have had three things in common: they were brilliant (deserving of being called polymaths and polyglots), they were justifiably popular with their patients whom they served with consummate skill and compassion and they were inordinately self-opinionated and quarrelsome. Hamilton was one such physician. Brilliant, compassionate, knowledgeable, all his work patient-centred, but ruthless in his criticism of and contempt for any who disagreed with him for, in his mind, he was never wrong.