Ernest S. Reynolds

Ernest Septimus Reynolds (1861-1926) was an English physician.

Emeritus professor of clinical medicine at the University of Manchester. Reynolds wrote extensively regarding the effects of arsenic upon the beer drinking population of North England and the Midlands.

In 1900 and 1901 he published his findings and reviews in the BMJ, Lancet and Medico-Chirurgical Transactions on the ‘Epidemic of Peripheral Neuritis Amongst Beer Drinkers in Manchester and District‘, concentrating on the signs and symptoms of polyneuropathy due to acute arsenic poisoning.

There must have been some arsenic in the beer for years before Reynolds found it, and it can be truthfully said of him, “He made beer purer.”

Reynolds enjoyed a large consulting practice in general medicine and in mental and nervous cases. He was known for his speed and reliability in diagnosis and for his distrust of instrumental and laboratory aids. Personally he was a reticent man who found relaxation in the study of philosophy and logic.

Biography

• Born on April 7, 1861 in Manchester, England
• 1885 – M.D., University of London
• 1887 – Resident medical officer, Manchester Royal Infirmary
• 1888 – Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP)
• 1891 – Honorary physician to the Ancoats Hospital and Physician to the Manchester Workhouse Infirmary; lecturer in hygiene to the Lancashire County Council
• 1896 – Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP)
• 1899-1921 Honorary staff of the Manchester Royal Infirmary
• 1902 – Secretary of the Section of Psychological Medicine when the British Medical Association held its annual meeting in Manchester
• 1912 – President of the Manchester Medical Society, vice-president of the Section of Neurology and Psychological Medicine at Liverpool
• 1912-1913 Representative of the Lancashire and Cheshire Branch on the Central Council
• 1914-1918 Lieutenant-colonel in the R.A.M.C. 
• 1917 – Bradshaw lecturer in the Royal College of Physicians and choose as his subject the “causes of disease“
• 1920 – Reynolds presented his presidential lecture for the section of neurology of the Royal Society of Medicine on the causes of nervous diseases, using the same classification he had proposed in his Bradshaw Lecture of 1917
• 1921 – Consulting physician Manchester Royal Infirmary
• Retired from the university as Emeritus Professor of clinical medicine at the University of Manchester
• Died May 22, 1926 from acute influenzal pneumonia. He received an obituary of over 2 pages in the British Medical Journal.

Medical Eponyms

Mees lines (Reynolds lines) (1919)

Reynolds wrote extensively regarding the effects of arsenic upon the beer drinking population of North England and the Midlands. In 1901 he published his findings and review in the Lancet concentrating on the signs and symptoms of polyneuropathy due to acute arsenic poisoning.

Nails: In many cases the nails are affected. After the patients have stopped taking the beer for some weeks the best appearances are seen, for then there is a transverse white ridge across the nail; proximal to this the nail is normal, but distal to it the nail is whiter, cracked, thin, and towards the tip almost papery and much flattened. In some cases there have been a series of parallel transverse ridges of the nails, also suggesting a series of week-end drinking bouts. These deformed nails of course break easily.

Reynolds 1901

Major Publications

• Reynolds ES. Primer of hygiene. 1894 (2e 1898)
• Reynolds ES. A Point in the Diagnosis Between Chronic Rheumatic Affections and Chronic Gout. Br Med J. 1896; 1(1833): 395‐396.
• Reynolds ES. Peripheral Neuritis Connected with Pregnancy and the Puerperal State. Br Med J. 1897; 2(1920): 1080‐1082.
• Reynolds ES. An Epidemic of Peripheral Neuritis amongst Beer Drinkers in Manchester and District. Br Med J. 1900; 2(2082): 1492‐1493
• Reynolds ES. Further Observations on Epidemic Arsenical Peripheral Neuritis. Br Med J. 1900; 2(2086): 1769‐1771.
• Reynolds ES. An Account of the Epidemic Outbreak of Arsenical Poisoning occurring in Beer Drinkers in the North of England and the Midland Counties in 1900. Medico-Chirurgical Transactions. 1901; 84: 409‐452. [Mees lines]
• Reynolds ES. An Account of the Epidemic Outbreak of Arsenical Poisoning occurring in Beer Drinkers in the North of England and the Midland Counties in 1900. Lancet. 1901; 157(4038): 166-170
• Reynolds ES. A note on alcoholic and arsenical neuritis. Review of neurology and psychiatry, 1905; 3: 264-267
• Reynolds ES. Hygiene for beginners. 1906
• Reynolds ES. The practice of medicine as a fine art: presidential address to the Manchester Medical Society. Br Med J. 1912 Mar 9;1(2671):529-31.
• Reynolds ES. An Address on the practice of medicine as fine art. Br Med J. 1912; 1(2671): 529‐531.
• Reynolds ES. Another phase of ‘Academic Freedom’. Science. 1917; 46(1182): 184‐185.
• Reynolds ES. An Address on the causes of nervous diseases. Presidential Address of the Neurological Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, Oct. 14th, 1920. Lancet 1920; 196(5069): 834-837
• Reynolds ES, Hance RT. Pruning the academic tree. Science. 1923; 57(1475): 408‐410.

References

Biography

• Obituary. Ernest Septimus Reynolds, M.D., F.R.C.P. Br Med J. 1926; 1(3413): 969‐971.
• Obituary. Ernest Septimus Reynolds. Lancet 1926; 207(5362): 1122
• Biography: Ernest Septimus Reynolds. Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of London. Munk’s Roll: Volume IV: 390.
• Bibliography. Reynolds, Ernest Septimus 1861-1926. WorldCat Identities

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Kathryn Scott

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