James Hope

Biography

• Born 23 February 1801 Stockport, England
• 1825 – Medical degree, Edinburgh University
• 1828 – MD Edin LRCP
• 1839 – Full physician at St. George’s Hospital
• 1840 – MRCS FRS FRCP
• Died 12 May 1841 of pulmonary tuberculosis

Medical Eponyms

Hope sign (1832)

Systolic protrusion and retraction of the anterior chest wall in patients with pericardial adhesions

In five or six cases (and, since this was published seven years ago (1832), I may now say a much greater number) I have remarked one sign, which has not, to my knowledge, been hitherto noticed by others: namely, the heart, though enlarged, and when, therefore, it ought to beat preternaturally low down in the chest, beats as high up as natural, and sometimes occasions a prominence of the cartilages of the left precordial ribs (Cases of May, Harrison, a Boy, Payne, &c). We should, indeed, naturally expect that the adhesion would brace up the organ, and that, when enlarged and not able to descend, it must, being bounded behind by the spine, force the walls of the precordial region forward.

Hope 1839: 194

Key Medical Attributions

• Auscultation (Father of heart sounds of cardiology) bit of a Barney with Graves and Stokes in 1839

Controversies

Major Publications

• Hope J. A treatise on the diseases of the heart and great vessels. 1832 (1e 1832; German edition 1833; 2e 1835; 3e 1839)
• Hope J. Adhesion of the pericardium In: A treatise on the diseases of the heart and great vessels. 1832; 1e: 126-131 (1e) [1839; 3e: 191-195] [Hope sign]
• Hope J. Principles and illustrations of morbid anatomy. 1834 (American edition 1845)
• Hope J. A treatise on the diseases of the heart and great vessels, and on the affections which may be mistaken for them: comprising the author’s view of the physiology of the heart’s action and sounds. 1849 (Posthumous 4th edition)

References

• Graves RJ, Stokes W. Dr. Hope on auscultation in valvular disease. In: Scientific Intelligence. Dublin Journal of Medical Science. 1839; 14: 180
• Hope A. Memoir of the late James Hope, M.D. 1842
• James Hope. The London medical gazette. 1842; 30: 692-694
• Flaxman N. Hope of Cardiology. Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine. 1938; 6(1): 1-21
• Dr. James Hope. Nature 1941; 147: 605–606
• JAMES HOPE (1801-1841). JAMA. 1965; 191(13): 1076-1077
• McCrady JD, Hoff HE, Geddes LA. The contributions of the horse to knowledge of the heart and circulation. IV. James Hope and the heart sounds. Conn Med. 1966; 30(2): 126-31.
• Bluth EI. James Hope and the acceptance of auscultation. J Hist Med Allied Sci. 1970; 25(2): 202-10.
• Fye WB. Profiles in Cardiology: James Hope. Clinical Cardiology. 1989; 12: 358-359
• Hope, James (1801-1841) (DNB00). Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 27
• Ye F et al. Physical Examination Signs of Inspection and Medical Eponyms in Pericarditis Part I: 1761 to 1852. Erclyes Med J 2019; 41(2): 223–229