Douglas Argyll Robertson
Douglas Moray Cooper Lamb Argyll Robertson (1837–1909) was a Scottish surgeon and ophthalmologist.
Famous for noting the association of an intact accommodation reflex with absent light reflex in certain spinal disease, later attributed to tertiary syphilis Argyll Robertson pupils (1869)
Promoting the extract of Calabar Bean, containing physostigmine (eserin), as a new drug particularly for glaucoma treatment.
Biography
- Born 1837 Edinburgh, Scotland
- 1857 – Graduated medicine, St. Andrews University. Licenciate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
- 1858 – Prague under von Arlt; Berlin, Albrecht von Graefe
- 1866 – Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
- 1886 – President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
- 1893 – President of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom (first ‘non-London‘ President Honorary surgeon–oculist to Queen Victoria and to King Edward VII)
- Died 3 January 1909 on vacation in Gonday, India – cremated on the bank of the river Gondli
Medical Eponyms
Argyll Robertson pupils (1869)
Reflex iridoplegia characterized by small, irregular, unequal pupils, with near-light dissociation; absence of a miotic reaction to both direct and consensual light with preservation of the accommodation reflex. Classically associated with neurosyphilis.
Key Medical Attributions
Argyll Robertson showed the antagonistic property of the Calabar bean (Physostigma venenosum) to atropine; later to become first effective medication to treat glaucoma.
Argyll Robertson was consulted by a patient who lived in ‘Old Calabar’ about the ‘Calabar swellings’ that affected her eyes. He extracted filiarial Loa loa worms from these lumps and was thus one of the first to describe Ocular Loiasis.
Major Publications
- Robertson DA. The progress of ophthalmology; a sketch. 1862.
- Robertson DA. The calabar bean as a new agent in ophthalmic medicine. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. 1863. [Calabar Bean (Physostigma venenosum) – Atropine]
- Robertson DA. On an interesting series of eye symptoms in a case of spinal disease, with remarks on the action of belladonna on the iris. Edin Med J. 1869;14:696–708 [PMC5326971]
- Robertson DA. Four cases of spinal myosis: with remarks on the action of light on the pupil. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. 1869 [Argyll Robertson pupils]
- Robertson DA. Practical suggestions as to medical study; at the opening of the Medical School, Edinburgh. 1869
- Robertson DA. An address on the therapeutic contributions of ophthalmology to general medicine. Br Med J 1893; 2:941–943 [PMC2422377]
References
- Obituary: Douglas Argyll Robertson. Br Med J 1909;1:191
- Thoburn AL. Douglas Argyll Robertson, 1837-1909 Discoverer of the pupillary syndrome. Br J Vener Dis. 1977 Aug; 53(4): 244–246. [PMC1045407]
- Grzybowski A, Sak J. Douglas Moray Cooper Lamb Argyll Robertson (1837–1909). J Neurol. 2016; 263: 838–840. [PMC4826659]
- Grzybowski A, Plant GT. A tribute to Douglas Argyll Robertson in the centenary of his death: his achievements, the influence of his father and his ‘pupil’ today. Neuro-Ophthalmology 2009; 33:308–312
