Search Results for Medical Obituaries - Narrowed by: Physician - Gastroenterologist

First Title value, for Searching Baron, Jeremy Hugh (1931 - 2014)

2024-05-22T17:12:23Z

by John R Bennett
Publication Date 2015-06-12 2016-04-27
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007400-E007499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379633379633
Occupation Gastroenterologist Physician
Details Hugh Baron was a consultant physician-gastroenterologist at St Mary's and Hammersmith hospitals, London. Of all his qualities, the foremost was his love of scholarship. He hungered for knowledge in all his many areas of interest, and from his research and ideas he added to most of them. He described his main hobby as 'looking', and from his tall, gaunt frame his quizzical gaze would peruse scientific data, paintings, buildings and members of committees alike. Many were found wanting, for his standards were high, and his learning was analytical, not just acquisitive. He was a compulsive writer and publisher: everything (he believed) should be recorded. As well as his many interests within gastroenterology, he had clear views on ethical matters and was always concerned about the 'political' aspects of medicine. He was strong on medical history and on art in, and out, of hospitals. In later years he wrote thoughtfully about religious matters in a collection of talks given to seminars at his synagogue in New York. His father, Edward Baron, was a Tottenham general practitioner, his mother was Lilian Hannah Baron née Silman. Hugh's academic abilities were demonstrated early by winning a scholarship to University College School, a Styring scholarship to Queen's College, Oxford, and then becoming the first Broderip scholar at Middlesex Hospital Medical School. When house officer posts at the Middlesex and Royal Northern hospitals ended, National Service claimed him for the RAMC as a captain. Initially at the Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich, he passed his MRCP and was sent as a junior specialist to Malaya. He might have ended his life there had his commanding officer not ordered him to stay in Kuala Lumpur rather than flying up country. His life-time's interest - indeed fascination - with the stomach was sparked as a student by Sir Francis Avery Jones and an enthusiasm for epidemiology and clinical trials by Sir Richard Doll. At the Middlesex as a registrar he developed Sir Andrew Kay's augmented histamine test of gastric secretion to his own concept of peak acid output (PAO) (often studying his own, as he had no fear of the nasogastric tube). He showed that below 15 mmol/hour PAO duodenal ulcers did not occur, so treatment to induce this lowered acid state would allow an ulcer to heal. This work led to his DM in 1964. In 1970 international recognition of his work and reputation led him to be invited to give one of the few quadrennial reviews at the World Congress of Gastroenterology in Copenhagen. This was magisterial in tone and delivery, and eventually resulted in his 1978 book *Clinical tests of gastric secretion: history, methodology and interpretation* (London, Macmillan). From 1961 to 1962 he held a Medical Research Council travelling fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, where he studied pancreatic secretion, showing that it correlated with PAO. Declining the offer of a permanent post in the USA, he returned to a lectureship at the Middlesex, and thence made his crucial move to the Postgraduate Medical School of London in Richard Welbourn's surgical department. This close collaboration with surgical researchers was unusual but productive, and he was also able to work closely with Stephen Bloom and Julia Polak in investigating regulatory peptides. Much later, when *Helicobacter pylori* came on the scene, he collaborated with John Calam. Additionally he took an interest in inflammatory bowel disease, writing about observer error in sigmoidoscopic reports of inflammation, and the effectiveness of 5-ASA compounds in colitis. His medical-surgical collaboration found a name in the 1980s when his friend Wilfred Lorenz of Marburg revived the idea of 'theoretical surgery'. Baron delighted in this seeming oxymoron and with Lorenz they founded a journal with the title - but it only survived a few years. In 1987 he was made fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and later became Hunterian professor (1993 to 1994). In 2001 he was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. Alongside his part-time academic employment, he continued to practise clinical medicine at Tottenham, then at St Charles Hospital for over 20 years. Merger with St Mary's Hospital in 1991 established him on the consultant staff there. On retirement he donated his entire library to St Mary's. He was gregarious and travelled widely to lecture. He lectured as he wrote - clearly, trenchantly, authoritatively. His tall figure at the lectern (speaking with Received Pronunciation and extravagantly rolled 'r's) was a familiar sight world-wide, but he equally enjoyed discussion. Speakers often quailed as they saw him in the audience unfolding himself and, with hands together as in prayer, eyes closed and facing upwards, he might demolish an argument or correct a mistaken fact, but he was never impolite. His clarity of analysis, thinking and writing made him an ideal member of the *British Medical Journal*'s 'hanging committee' (1983 to 1988), which assisted the editor in making the final choice of papers for publication. Like many scientific writers, he did not always find the practices of publication satisfactory, so when the Society of Authors formed a medical writers group he was an early member and eventually became its chairman. He was an enthusiastic member of the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG). He was its archivist for 16 years, was chairman of the golden jubilee committee for 1987, and wrote a history of the Society for a special edition of the journal *Gut* for that year (*History of the British Society of Gastroenterology 1937-1987: [BSG 50th anniversary]* *Gut* 28, Jubilee Suppl. London, British Medical Association, 1987). The biographical vignettes of every Society officer for 50 years, which he composed, were models of compressed detail of character. He was president from 1988 to 1989. He always regretted that he had never been invited to give the Sir Arthur Hurst lecture. He was a clubbable man and a 'joiner' of societies, so he liked being an Apothecary, became a member of the Oxford and Cambridge Club (but not until they agreed to accept women members) and even founded one. In 1972 he created the Prout Club, membership by invitation, for researchers in the stomach and its secretions. This met at the BSG annual meeting for dinner and debate, and still continues. The Royal Society of Medicine benefited from his attentions and membership. He was on its council for 12 years and held several offices, including president of the clinical section. He kept an interested but baleful eye on the Royal College of Physicians for many years. After becoming a fellow in 1974, he became a regular attender at its quarterly comitias (general meeting of fellows), periodically asking cogent questions. He was a staunch ally of John Bennett from 1976 to 1985 while he sought to obtain a referendum about reforming the method of electing the president. He remarked to Bennett: 'I never know whether to dampen your enthusiasm. I always go into these battles knowing I am going to lose. You are of a different temperament and can fight only when you think you might win.' He was an RCP councillor from 1993 to 1996, and gave a memorable Fitzpatrick lecture in 1994. He applied to arts and architecture the same clarity of vision and analytical description as he did to science. Undoubtedly these interests were fostered by his marriages, first to Wendy (née Dimson), an expert on Walter Sickert and for many years curator of the Government Art Collection, and then to Carla, professor of the history of art at Kean University, New Jersey. He found most NHS hospitals dreary buildings and advocated their beautification by cleaning and installing art works such as murals. He even persuaded the Department of Health to revise its health building note one in 1988 to emphasise that hospital buildings should be 'beautiful as well as functional'. His productivity did not end with retirement in 1996. He spent summers in London and winters in New York, rejoining Mount Sinai Hospital as an honorary professorial lecturer. He co-edited a volume of the history of the gastroenterology and hepatology departments (*Gastroenterology and hepatology at the Mount Sinai Hospital, 1852-2000* New York, Mount Sinai journal of medicine, 2002) and compiled a volume on 24 Mount Sinai physicians (*Twenty-four notable Mount Sinai physicians and scientists* [New York], The Samuel Bronfman Department of Medicine, [Mount Sinai School of Medicine], 2001). He continued research into the history of dyspepsia, making forays into the ancient medical records of institutions on both side of the Atlantic, revealing the story of 4,000 years of the stomach, published as a book in 2013 (*The stomach: a biography: four thousand years of stomach pains: literature, symptoms and epidemiology* Createspace/Jeremy Hugh Baron). He pursued bioethics, too, and in 2007 published an account of racism, nationalism, eugenics and genocide (*The Anglo-American biomedical antecedents of Nazi crimes: an historical analysis of racism, nationalism, eugenics and genocide* Lewiston, NY, Edwin Mellen Press). He worshipped at the New York Society for the Advancement of Judaism, often led discussion groups, publishing some of his seminar contributions as *Fifty synagogue seminars* (Hamilton Books, 2010). He had two children with Wendy, Susannah (a consultant dermatologist) and Richard, sometimes known as 'Archie'. He correctly summed himself up as a restless polymath and said 'I knew from experience how to accept the unchangeable, but still persisted, sometimes successfully, to change the unacceptable.'
Resource Identifier RCS: E007450
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Sir Francis Avery (1910 - 1998)

2024-05-22T17:12:23Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-11-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008600-E008699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380855380855
Occupation Gastroenterologist Physician
Details Francis Avery Jones was a distinguished consultant physician and gastroenterologist at Central Middlesex and St Mark's Hospitals. He was born in Beccles, Suffolk, on 31 May 1910, the son of Francis Samuel and Marion Rosa. He was educated locally at the St John Leman School, before proceeding to St Bartholomew's Hospital for his medical studies. He gained the Baly research scholarship in 1936, and it was at his *alma mater* that he developed his major interest in peptic ulcer and its complications, especially haemorrhage. Appointed consultant physician to the Central Middlesex Hospital in 1940, he built up a gastrointestinal unit virtually single-handed - the first clinical and research unit in Britain. Aspiring young British and overseas doctors were welcomed to the unit, many of whom later developed their own units, having been taught to be calm, caring and competent physicians. He himself was unflappable and was constantly searching for new ideas, as well as using and evaluating the old: his expertise with the rigid gastroscope was renowned. Basil Hirschowitz, working in his department, realised the advantage of the 'Hopkins' fibre-optic system, but he and Avery were unable to persuade British instrument makers to recognise the future potential in gastroenterology. Hirschowitz left for the USA, where the first flexible fibre endoscope was produced. Avery Jones' unit continued to attract distinguished figures, who worked on oesophageal and intestinal motility and jejunal biopsy, and were also engaged in clinical trials. In the management of peptic ulcer he was fortunate to have Peter Gummer as a surgical colleague. Avery Jones was also consultant physician to St Mark's Hospital (from 1948 to 1978), to the Royal Navy (from 1950 to 1978), and honorary consulting physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital. He had a special concern for nutrition and was early to recognise the need for dietary fibre; his unit at the Central Middlesex Hospital (where there is an Avery Jones Postgraduate Medical Centre and an annual Avery Jones lecture) is now the department of gastroenterology and nutrition. He published many books and papers, including two editions of *Modern trends in gastro-enterology* (London, Butterworths, 1952 and 1958) of which he was editor, and *Clinical gastroenterology* (Oxford, Blackwell Scientific, 1960) of which he was joint author. Both books gave the specialty a firm foundation for expansion in Britain. Present at the inaugural meeting of the British Society of Gastroenterology in 1937, he was President in 1966, and served as its archivist for many years thereafter. He graced the Society's diamond jubilee celebrations in the spring of 1997. Instrumental in founding the journal *Gut* in 1960, he was the editor until 1970. As well as examining for the University of London and Leeds, he served on the medical subcommittee of the University Grants Committee from 1966 to 1971 and from 1975 to 1982 was a council member of the University of Surrey. He made major contributions to the Royal College of Physicians as an examiner, and was second Vice-President from 1972 to 1973. Over the years he gave several eponymous lectures for the Royal College of Physicians, including the Goulstonian lecture in 1947, the Lumleian lecture, the Croonian lecture in 1969 and was Harveian orator in 1980. His association with the Worshipful Company of Barbers led to his becoming Master from 1977 to 1978, and in the Vicary lecture delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1977 he chose as his subject, '*The Norwich school of surgery*'. Reflecting his East Anglian roots, he gave a well-researched historical account from early days through the medieval period and the origins of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, ending with the 20th century contributions of surgeons at this institution. Avery Jones became President of the sections of proctology and united services of the Royal Society of Medicine, and was President of the Medical Society of London from 1977 to 1978, gaining the latter's Fothergillian gold medal in 1980. He was also President of the Medical Artist's Association from 1980 to 1991 and of the British Digestive Foundation from 1981 to 1992. An ardent supporter of the NHS until the latest reforms, Avery Jones served on numerous committees, being Chairman of the Emergency Bed Service (from 1967 to 1972) and a member of the Brent and Harrow Area Health Authority. For 35 years he served on King's Fund committees, concerning himself with the quality of hospital care, including records, waiting lists, hospital beds and patients' diets. Made an honorary member of many overseas gastroenterological societies - American, Canadian, Australasian, French and Scandinavian, he was the first memorial lecturer of the American Gastroenterological Association in 1954, and won the Henry Bockus medal of the World Organisation of Gastroenterology in 1982. Relaxation came from waterside and herb gardening, which he tackled as systematically as his clinical work, acquiring an extensive knowledge of medicinal herbs. He married Dorothea Pfizter in 1934, by whom he had one son, John Francis Avery Jones, CBE, a lawyer of distinction, born in 1940. On the death of his first wife in 1983, he married K Joan Edmunds.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008672
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset