Thomas Watson, (1792 – 11 December 1882) was a British

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

who is primarily known for describing the

water hammer pulse Watson's water hammer pulse, also known as Corrigan's pulse or collapsing pulse, is the medical sign (seen in aortic regurgitation) which describes a pulse that is bounding and forceful, rapidly increasing and subsequently collapsing, as if it wer ...

found in

aortic regurgitation Aortic regurgitation (AR), also known as aortic insufficiency (AI), is the leaking of the aortic valve of the heart that causes blood to flow in the reverse direction during ventricular diastole, from the aorta into the left ventricle. As a conseq ...

in 1844. He was president of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

from 1862 to 1866. He was born in 1792, the son of Joseph Watson, in Kentisbeare, near

Honiton Honiton ( or ) is a market town and civil parish in East Devon, situated close to the River Otter, north east of Exeter in the county of Devon. Honiton has a population estimated at 11,822 (based on mid-year estimates for the two Honiton Ward ...

East Devon East Devon is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Devon, England. Its council has been based in Honiton since February 2019, and the largest town is Exmouth (with a population of 34,432 at the time of the 2011 census). ...

, and educated at

Bury St Edmunds Grammar School King Edward VI School is a co-educational Comprehensive school, comprehensive secondary school in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The school in its present form was created in 1972 by the merging of King Edward VI Grammar School, with the Silv ...

. He entered

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, graduating in 1815. He was elected a

fellow of the Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

in 1826 and delivered the Gulstonian Lecture in 1827 and the Lumleian lecture in 1831. He studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital and Edinburgh and graduated M.D. from Cambridge University in 1825. He was appointed physician to the Middlesex hospital in 1827 and was professor of clinical medicine at the University of London for a year before transferring to King's College as professor of Forensic Medicine and later professor of Principles and Practice of Medicine. In 1833,

Dominic Corrigan Sir Dominic John Corrigan, 1st Baronet (2 December 1802 – 1 February 1880), was an Irish physician, known for his original observations in heart disease. The abnormal "collapsing" pulse of aortic valve insufficiency is named Corrigan's pulse ...

, a British physician, first described the visible abrupt distention and collapse of

carotid arteries In anatomy, the left and right common carotid arteries (carotids) (Entry "carotid"
in
aortic insufficiency Aortic regurgitation (AR), also known as aortic insufficiency (AI), is the leaking of the aortic valve of the heart that causes blood to flow in the reverse direction during ventricular diastole, from the aorta into the left ventricle. As a conseq ...

. Watson went on to investigate the palpable

pulse In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...

in these patients and, following his elaboration, the

clinical sign Signs and symptoms are the observed or detectable signs, and experienced symptoms of an illness, injury, or condition. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature than normal, raised or lowered blood pressure or an abnormality showin ...

is also referred to as

Watson's pulse Watsons () is a Hong Kong health care and beauty care chain store in Asia and Europe. It is the flagship health and beauty brand of the A.S. Watson Group, which is majority owned by CK Hutchison Holdings. It operates near 8,000 stores and ...

. He resigned his chair at King’s College in 1840 and his post in the Middlesex hospital in 1843 and in 1859 was appointed physician extraordinary to the queen. He was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

in 1866 and in 1870 was appointed physician in ordinary to the queen. In 1857 he was elected to serve for two years as president of the

Pathological Society The Pathological Society is a professional organisation of Great Britain and Ireland whose mission is stated as 'understanding disease'. Membership and profile The membership of the society is mainly drawn from the UK and includes an internat ...

and in 1859 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 science, natural knowledge, incl ...

, In 1868 he was elected president of the

Clinical Society of London The Clinical Society of London was founded in London in 1868 and merged in 1907 with the Royal Society of Medicine. The founding of the Clinical Society was mainly due to Drs. Edward Headlam Greenhow and John Burdon Sanderson who convened a meeting ...

. archive.org

Publications

* "

Zymotic Zymotic disease was a 19th-century medical term for acute infectious diseases, especially "chief fevers and contagious diseases (e.g. typhus and typhoid fevers, smallpox, scarlet fever, measles, erysipelas, cholera, whooping-cough, diphtheria, etc. ...

br>Disease
, the origin of disease being due to contagion,

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

article, 7 July 1877, p. 5

References

External links

Munks Roll for Sir Thomas Watson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Thomas 1792 births 1882 deaths 19th-century English medical doctors Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Physicians-in-Ordinary