Campbell Greig De Morgan (22 November 1811 – 12 April 1876) was a British surgeon who first speculated that cancer arose locally and then spread, first to the

lymph nodes A lymph node, or lymph gland, is a kidney-shaped organ of the lymphatic system and the adaptive immune system. A large number of lymph nodes are linked throughout the body by the lymphatic vessels. They are major sites of lymphocytes that includ ...

and then more widely in the body. His name is used to describe the non cancerous Campbell de Morgan spot; bright red spots that may appear on the skin in later life and which he was the first to note in medical literature.

Life

He was born in 1811 at

Clovelly Clovelly () is a privately-owned harbour village in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The settlement and surrounding land belongs to John Rous who inherited it from his mother in 1983. He belongs to the Hamlyn family who have managed t ...

near

Bideford Bideford ( ) is a historic port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is the main town of the Torridge local government district. Toponymy In ancient records Bideford is recorded as ''Bedeford'', ''By ...

, Devon, England in 1811, youngest of three sons of Colonel John de Morgan (1772-1816), of the Indian Army, and Elizabeth (1776-1856), daughter of John Dodson and granddaughter of the mathematician James Dodson. The de Morgan family, of

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

origin, had a long association with the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

. The mathematician Augustus De Morgan was an older brother. He trained at

University College Hospital University College Hospital (UCH) is a teaching hospital in the Fitzrovia area of the London Borough of Camden, England. The hospital, which was founded as the North London Hospital in 1834, is closely associated with University College Lon ...

, London and went on to be a house surgeon at the

Middlesex Hospital Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...

where he remained for the rest of his career. He was actively involved in the Middlesex Hospital Medical School from its foundation in 1835 and was a close associate of its founder, Sir

Charles Bell Sir Charles Bell (12 November 177428 April 1842) was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist, physiologist, neurologist, artist, and philosophical theologian. He is noted for discovering the difference between sensory nerves and motor nerves in the spin ...

. In 1841 he became a lecturer in

forensic medicine Forensic medicine is a broad term used to describe a group of medical specialties which deal with the examination and diagnosis of individuals who have been injured by or who have died because of external or unnatural causes such as poisoning, ass ...

and in 1845 professor of

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having i ...

. In 1861, on the basis of a paper on the structure and development of bone, he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemati ...

. He also pursued an interest in the arts. He was a talented musician who studied the

science of music Music psychology, or the psychology of music, may be regarded as a branch of both psychology and musicology. It aims to explain and understand musical behaviour and experience, including the processes through which music is perceived, created, res ...

, and was a gifted

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfred Grévin (1827–1892) * Al ...

. His death in 1876 was caused by his sitting up throughout the night of 6 April at the bedside of his close friend, the artist

John Graham Lough John Graham Lough (8 January 1798 – 8 April 1876) was an English sculptor known for his funerary monuments and a variety of portrait sculpture. He also produced ideal classical male and female figures. Life John Graham Lough was born at Bl ...

. Lough was critically ill with

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

and died the following morning. De Morgan himself then developed pneumonia and

pleurisy Pleurisy, also known as pleuritis, is inflammation of the membranes that surround the lungs and line the chest cavity ( pleurae). This can result in a sharp chest pain while breathing. Occasionally the pain may be a constant dull ache. Other sy ...

from which he himself died on 12 April. He was married to Kate Hudson and they had two sons Walter and John. A bust of Campbell De Morgan by John Graham Lough is located at the Middlesex Hospital, London.

References

*
Campbell De Morgan's 'Observations on cancer', and their relevance today
' John M Grange MSc MD, John L Stanford MD, Cynthia A Stanford SRN, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2002 95: 296–299. Accessed May 2007
Oxford Biography index entry
The De Morgan family tree from 1684, (see Campbell Greig DE MORGAN, b. 22 Nov 1811). Researched by Daniel Morgan. Accessed May 2007.

External links

Photo of the bust of Campbell de Morgan
at the Middlesex Hospital, London. 1811 births 1876 deaths English surgeons English anatomists Fellows of the Royal Society {{England-med-bio-stub