Thomas George Morton

Thomas George Morton (1835 – 1903) was an American surgeon.

Civil War Union Army Surgeon and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Medical school.

Eponyms include Morton’s neuroma and Morton’s neuralgia

Biography

• Born August 8, 1835, Philadelphia
• 1856 – Graduated in Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
• Surgeon during the Civil War at Philadelphia’s Satterlee United States Army General Hospital and at the Chestnut Hill United States Army Hospital
• Died May 20, 1903 of cholera aged 68

Medical Eponyms

• Morton’s neuroma – benign, perineural fibrotic lesion of a common digital nerve
• Morton’s neuralgia, metatarsalgia (1876)

Controversies

• Morton’s metatarsalgia was first observed on cadaverous dissection in 1835 by Filippo Civinini (1805-1844) of Pistoia. he described in the anatomic letter entitled “Su un nervoso gangliare rigonfiamento alla pianta del piede” (“On the neural ganglion swelling of the foot sole“)

Major Publications

• Morton TG. A peculiar and painful affection of the fourth metatarso-phalangeal articulation. American Journal of the Medical Sciences. 1876; 71: 37–45. [Full Text]

References

• G. Pasero, P. Marson. Filippo Civinini (1805-1844) and the discovery of plantar neuroma. Reumatismo 2006;58(4):319-22
• Revista Trauma. Epónimos. Trauma Fundación Mapfre Vol. 25 (2014), No. 2 [Full Text]