Thomas Cooley

Biography

• Born 1871
• Died 1945

Medical Eponyms

Cooley Anemia (1925)

[aka *thalassemia major; erythroblastic anemia]

The term ‘thalassemia’ was coined in 1932 by George Hoyt Whipple (1878-1976) of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. The term is derived from the Greek words ‘thalassa’ (Θάλασσα) meaning ‘sea’ and the suffix -aima (αίμα) or ‘blood,’ denoting the high prevalence of the disorder in people originating from the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

Cooley had described a clinical entity, and it may be wise to use his name to distinguish this disease. We do not like the term “erythroblastic anemia” used by Cooley, as there is nothing especially characteristic about this feature of the blood. The disease is limited almost wholly to Italians, Greeks and Syrians, i. e., to the people originating about the Mediterranean Sea. For this reason the term “thalassemia,” derived from the Greek Θάλασσα , meaning the great sea and used to designate the Mediterranean, may have an appeal.

GH Whipple , WL Bradford. 1932: 364

Major Publications

• Cooley TB, Lee PA. A series of cases of splenomegaly in children with anemia and peculiar bone changes, Transactions of the American Pediatric Society 1925; 37: 29–30
• Cooley TB. von Jaksch’s Anemia, Am J Dis Child. 1927; 33(5): 786-797
• Cooley TB, Witwer ER, Lee P. Anemia in children with splenomegaly and peculiar changes in the bones. Am J Dis Child. 1927, 34: 347-363.
• Cooley TB. Likenesses and Contrasts in the Hemolytic Anemias of Children, Am J Dis Child. 1928; 36(6): 1257
• Cooley TB. A severe type of anemia with elliptocytosis: interesting sequence of splenectomy. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences 1945, 209: 561-568.

References

Biography

• Thomas Benton Cooley, MD 1871-1945. American Journal of Diseases of Children, Chicago, 1946, 71: 77-79.
• Beighton P, Beighton G. COOLEY, Thomas B. In: The Person Behind the Syndrome. Springer 1996: 44-45

Eponym

• Cooley TB, Lee PA, A series of cases of splenomegaly in children with anemia and peculiar bone changes. Hematology Landmark Papers of the Twentieth Century 2000: 113-117
• Siddiqui S, Steensma DP, Kyle RA. Thalassemia and Thomas Benton Cooley. Mayo Clin Proc. 2017;92(11):e161-e162.