Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Sir William Boog Leishman, (, 6 November 1865 – 2 June 1926) was a Scottish

pathologist Pathology is the study of the causal, causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when us ...

and

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

medical officer. He was Director-General of Army Medical Services from 1923 to 1926.

Biography

Grave of Sir William Leishman in Highgate Cemetery

Leishman was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

and attended

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

and the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

and entered the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

. He served in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, where he did research on

enteric fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several d ...

and kala-azar. He returned to the United Kingdom and was stationed at the Victoria Hospital in

Netley Netley, officially referred to as Netley Abbey, is a village on the south coast of Hampshire, England. It is situated to the south-east of the city of Southampton, and flanked on one side by the ruins of Netley Abbey and on the other by the Ro ...

in 1897. In 1900 he was made Assistant Professor of Pathology in the

Army Medical School Founded by U.S. Army Brigadier General George Miller Sternberg, MD in 1893, the Army Medical School (AMS) was by some reckonings the world's first school of public health and preventive medicine. (The other institution vying for this distinction ...

, and described a method of staining blood for

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

and other

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

s—a modification and simplification of the existing Romanowsky method using a compound of

methylene blue Methylthioninium chloride, commonly called methylene blue, is a salt used as a dye and as a medication. Methylene blue is a thiazine dye. As a medication, it is mainly used to treat methemoglobinemia by converting the ferric iron in hemoglobin ...

and

eosin Eosin is the name of several fluorescent acidic compounds which bind to and form salts with basic, or eosinophilic, compounds like proteins containing amino acid residues such as arginine and lysine, and stains them dark red or pink as a resul ...

, which became known as

Leishman's stain Leishman stain, also known as Leishman's stain, is used in microscopy for staining blood smears. It is generally used to differentiate between and identify white blood cells, malaria parasites, and trypanosomas. It is based on a methanolic mixture ...

. In 1901, while examining pathologic specimens of a

spleen The spleen is an organ found in almost all vertebrates. Similar in structure to a large lymph node, it acts primarily as a blood filter. The word spleen comes .

from a patient who had died of kala azar (now called "

visceral leishmaniasis Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar (Hindi: kālā āzār, "black sickness") or "black fever", is the most severe form of leishmaniasis and, without proper diagnosis and treatment, is associated with high fatality. Leishmaniasis ...

"), he observed oval bodies and published his account of them in 1903.

Charles Donovan Charles Donovan MD (19 September 1863 – 29 October 1951) was an Irish medical officer in the Indian Medical Service. He is best remembered for his discoveries of ''Leishmania donovani'' as the causative agent of visceral leishmaniasis, and ''Kl ...

of the Indian Medical Service independently found such bodies in other kala azar patients, and they are now known as Leishman–Donovan bodies (not to be confused with Donovan bodies, which are found in Granuloma inguinale, which is caused by ''Klebsiella granulomatis'') and recognized as the

protozoa Protozoa (singular: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a group of single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic tissues and debris. Histo ...

n that causes kala azar, ''Leishmania donovani''. Leishman's name was engraved into the history of parasitology by Sir

Ronald Ross Sir Ronald Ross (13 May 1857 – 16 September 1932) was a British medical doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on the transmission of malaria, becoming the first British Nobel laureate, and the f ...

, who was impressed by Leishman's work and classified the etiologic agent of kala azar into the separate genus ''

Leishmania ''Leishmania'' is a parasitic protozoan, a single-celled organism of the genus '' Leishmania'' that are responsible for the disease leishmaniasis. They are spread by sandflies of the genus ''Phlebotomus'' in the Old World, and of the genus '' ...

''. The parasitic organisms from this genus were described earlier by

Peter Borovsky Pyotr Fokich Borovsky (russian: Пётр Фоки́ч Боро́вский, 8 June 1863 – 15 December 1932) was Russian and Soviet surgeon and public health administrator of who worked in Tashkent, professor of surgery in Tashkent Medical In ...

in 1892. Leishman also helped elucidate the life cycle of '' Spirochaeta duttoni'', which causes African tick fever, and, with

Almroth Wright Sir Almroth Edward Wright (10 August 1861 – 30 April 1947) was a British bacteriologist and immunologist. He is notable for developing a system of anti-typhoid fever inoculation, recognizing early on that antibiotics would create resistant ...

, helped develop an effective anti-

typhoid Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

inoculation. He was president of the

Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, more commonly known by its acronym RSTMH, was founded in 1907 by Sir James Cantlie and George Carmichael Low. Sir Patrick Manson, the Society's first President (1907–1909), was recognised as "th ...

in 1911–1912 and Director General of the

Army Medical Services The Army Medical Services (AMS) is the organisation responsible for administering the corps that deliver medical, veterinary, dental and nursing services in the British Army. It is headquartered at the former Staff College, Camberley, near the ...

from 1923 to 1926. He is buried on the eastern side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

Recognition

Leishman's name features on the Frieze of the

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and a member institution of the University of London that specialises in public health and tropical medicine. The inst ...

. Twenty-three names of public health and tropical medicine pioneers were chosen to feature on the School building in Keppel Street when it was constructed in 1926. A memorial fund was instituted by subscriptions raised in memory of him and the Leishman Memorial Prize is now awarded annually for work in any branch of medicine, surgery, allied sciences or general duties of the RAMC or RADC.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leishman, William Boog 1865 births 1926 deaths Medical doctors from Glasgow Scottish parasitologists Scottish military medical officers Scottish inventors Scottish pathologists Alumni of the University of Glasgow People educated at Westminster School, London British Army lieutenant generals Burials at Highgate Cemetery Royal Army Medical Corps officers Fellows of the Royal Society Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Bachelor Foreign recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States) Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army) Military personnel from Glasgow Presidents of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Biography

Recognition

See also

References