John Cheyne
John Cheyne (1777 – 1836) was a Scottish surgeon and physician.
Cheyne was tutored at the University of Edinburgh by Alexander Monro secundus (1733-1817), who described the interventricular foramen
In 1812 Cheyne distinguished subarachnoid haemorrhage from intracerebral haemorrhage, and provided one of the first illustrations of subarachnoid haemorrhage.
In 1818 he described aorta steatomatous and wrote extensively on laryngotracheitis and hydrocephalus in children. Eponymously affiliated with Cheyne-Stokes Respiration (1818)
Cheyne suffered from depression towards the end of his life and wrote ‘Essays on the parital derangement of the mind’ as a therapeutic exercise
Biography
- Born February 3, 1777 Leith
- 1792-1795 Medical school, University of Edinburgh. His father being a surgeon, Cheyne was able to commence medical studies at 15 and graduate at 18…
- 1795-1799 Surgeon with an artillery corps. Served at the Battle of Vinegar Hill
- 1799-1810 Worked as a surgeon with his father
- 1811-1817 Physician to Meath Hospital, Dublin
- 1813-1819 Professor of Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
- 1820 – Physician General to British forces in Ireland. Lecturer in War Medicine
- Died January 31, 1836
Medical Eponyms
Cheyne-Stokes Respiration (1818)
Abnormal pattern of breathing which oscillates between hyperventilation and apnoea seen in the end stages of illness
Hippocrates first described Cheyne-Stokes breathing over two millennia earlier as ‘respiration throughout like that of a man recollecting himself, and rare, and large’.
Major Publications
- Cheyne J. A case of apoplexy in which the fleshy part of the heart was converted into fat. Dublin Hospital Reports. 1818;2:216-223. [Reprinted: Cardiac Classics. 1941;1:317-320] [Cheyne-Stokes Respiration]
- Cheyne J. Essay I. Of cynanche trachealis, or croup. In: Essays on the diseases of children: with cases and dissections. 1801
- Cheyne J. Essay II. Of the bowel complaints; more immediately connected with the biliary secretion, adn particularly of atrophia ablactatorum or weaning brash. In: Essays on the diseases of children: with cases and dissections. 1808
- Cheyne J. Essay III on hydrpcephalus acutus, or dropsy in the brain. In: Essays on the diseases of children: with cases and dissections.1808
- Cheyne J. Essays on the parital derangement of the mind in supposed connexion with religion. 1843
References
Biography
- Ormsby LH. John Cheyne. Medical history of the Meath Hospital and County Dublin Infirmary, 1888: 112-115
- O’Brien ET. Dublin Masters of Clinical Expression: I. John Cheyne (1777-1836). J Irish Colleges Physicians & Surg 1974;3:91-93.
- Pearce JMS. Cheyne-Stokes respiration. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 2002;72:595.
- Fletcher A, Moor D. The lives and works of John Cheyne (1777-1836) and William Stokes (1804-1878). J Intensive Care Soc. 2017; 18(4): 323-325.
Eponymous terms
- Willius FA, Keys TE. John Cheyne (1777-1836). Cardiac Classics. 1941;1:317-320
- Lyons JB. John Cheyne’s classic monographs. Journal of the History of the Neurosciences 1995;4(1):27-35.
eponym
the person behind the name
Dr Ronan McKenna, MB BCh BAO at National University of Ireland Galway. Living in Australia with plans for a future in Emergency Medicine. A keen interest in Medical History, Wilderness Medicine and Sport.
