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SIR MORELL MACKENZIE (1837-1892)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 253 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIR See also:MORELL See also:MACKENZIE (1837-1892)  , See also:British physician,son of See also:Stephen See also:Mackenzie, surgeon (d . 1851), was See also:born at See also:Leyton See also:stone, See also:Essex, on the 7th of See also:July 1837 . After going through the course at the See also:London See also:Hospital, and becoming M.R.C.S. in 1858, he studied abroad at See also:Paris, See also:Vienna and Pesth; and at Pesth he learnt the use of the newly-invented laryngoscope under J . N . Czermak . Returning to London in 1862, he worked at the London Hospital, and took his degree in See also:medicine . In 1863 he won the Jacksonian See also:prize at the Royal See also:College of Surgeons for an See also:essay on the " See also:Pathology of the Larynx," and he then de-voted himself to becoming a specialist in diseases of the See also:throat . In 1863 the Throat Hospital in See also:King See also:Street, See also:Golden Square, was founded, largely owing to his initiative, and by his See also:work there and at the London Hospital (where he was one of the physicians from 1866 to 1873) See also:Morell Mackenzie rapidly became recognized throughout See also:Europe as a leading authority, and acquired an extensive practice . So See also:great was his reputation that in May 1887, when the See also:crown See also:prince of See also:Germany (afterwards the See also:emperor See also:Frederick III.) was attacked by the See also:affection of the throat of which he ultimately died, Morell Mackenzie was specially summoned to attend him . The See also:German physicians who had attended the prince since the beginning of See also:March (Karl See also:Gerhardt, and subsequently Tobold, E. von Bergmann, and others) had diagnosed his ailment on the 18th of May as See also:cancer of the throat; but Morell Mackenzie insisted (basing his See also:opinion on a microscopical examination by R . See also:Virchow of a portion of the See also:tissue) that the disease was not demonstrably cancerous, that an operation for the extirpation of the larynx (planned for the 21st of May) was unjustifiable, and that the growth might well be a benign one and therefore curable by other treatment . The question was one not only of See also:personal but of See also:political importance, since it was doubted whether any one suffering from an incapacitating disease like cancer could, according to the See also:family See also:law of the Hohenzollerns, occupy the German See also:throne; and there was talk of a renunciation of the See also:succession by the crown prince .

It was freely hinted, moreover, that some of the doctors themselves were influenced by political considerations . At any See also:

rate, Morell Mackenzie's opinion was followed: the crown prince went to See also:England, under his treatment, and was See also:present at the See also:Jubilee celebrations in See also:June . Morell Mackenzie was knighted in See also:September 1887 for his services, and decorated with the See also:Grand See also:Cross of the See also:Hohenzollern See also:Order . In See also:November, however, the German doctors were again called into consultation, and it was ultimately admitted that the disease really was cancer; though Mackenzie, with very question-able See also:judgment, more than hinted that it had become See also:malignant since his first examination, in consequence of the irritating effect of the treatment by the German doctors . The crown prince (see FREDERICK III.) became emperor on the 9th of March 1888, and died on the 15th of June . During all this See also:period a violent See also:quarrel raged between See also:Sir Morell Mackenzie and the German medical See also:world . The German doctors published an See also:account of the illness, to which Mackenzie replied by a work entitled The Fatal Illness of Frederick the See also:Noble (1888), the publication of which caused him to be censured by the Royal College of Surgeons . After this sensational See also:episode in his career, the See also:remainder of Sir Morell Mackenzie's See also:life was uneventful, and he died somewhat suddenly in London, on the 3rd of See also:February 1892 . He published several books on laryngoscopy and diseases of the throat .

End of Article: SIR MORELL MACKENZIE (1837-1892)
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