Sir Morell Mackenzie (1837–1892)

Abstract

SIR, MORELL MACKENZIE, the eminent throat specialist of the Victorian era, was born at Leytonstone, Essex, on July 7, 1837. He came of a medical family, his father being a distinguished general practitioner, and his younger brother Stephen a prominent physician on the staff of the London Hospital. After qualifying in 1858, he went to Paris, where he attended the clinics of Trousseau, Nelaton, Ricord and others, and then to Vienna, where he studied under Oppolzer, Skoda, Rokitansky and Hebra, and finally to Budapest, where he made the acquaintance of Czermak, who was experimenting with the laryngoscope invented by Manuel Garcia. On his return to London, after holding the posts of resident medical officer and registrar at the London Hospital, he set up in practice in George Street, Hanover Square. In 1863 he gained the Jackson prize of the Royal College of Surgeons by an essay on the pathology and treatment of diseases of the larynx and in 1866 was appointed assistant physician to the London Hospital, becoming full physician in 1873. His chief publication was his work on "Diseases of the Throat and Nose", of which the first volume appeared in 1880 and the second in 1884, and at once became the standard book on the subject. He was also the author of "The Use of the Laryngoscope in Diseases of the Throat" (1865), "Diphtheria: Its Nature and Treatment" (1879) and "Hay Fever and Paroxysmal Sneezing", of which the fourth edition was published in 1887.