Thomas Watson • LITFL • Medical Eponym Library

Sir Thomas Watson, 1st Baronet (1792 – 1882) was an English physician.

He presented the landmark ‘Lectures on the principles and practice of physic‘ at King’s College London (1836-37), which was later published in the London Medical Gazette (1841-1842) and now renowned as a guiding work in the medical literature in a two volume collection (1844-1871).

Sir Watson is best remembered for his description of the palpable pulse of aortic regurgitation in 1837 as likened to a Victorian toy, the water-hammer pulse.

He was president of the Royal College of Physicians (1862-66), Physician Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, and created a baronet, among his many academic roles at English universities.

Biography

Born 7 March 1792, Devonshire, England
1815 – Graduated with B.A. as tenth wrangler (tenth placed) from St. John’s College, University of Cambridge
1818 – Awarded M.A. degree from St. John’s College, University of Cambridge
1819 – Commenced medical studies at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (London), with further classes at the University of Edinburgh before returning to Cambridge
1825 – Conferred M.D. degree from the University of Cambridge
1826 – Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians
1826-44 – Appointed physician to Middlesex Hospital (London)
1828-31 – Professor of Clinical Medicine at the newly opened University College London
1831 – Professor of Forensic Medicine at King’s College London
1836 – Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine, King’s College London
1836-37 – Presented the ‘Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Physic‘, which were later published in the London Medical Gazette then as two book volumes
1859 – Appointed Physician Extraordinary to Queen Victoria
1862-66 – President of the Royal College of Physicians
1866 – Created a baronet
1870-82 – Physician-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria
Died 11 December 1882

Medical Eponyms

Watson water-hammer pulse (1837)

In aortic regurgitation (insufficiency), the visible pulse (carotid) is termed the Corrigan pulse; and the palpable pulse (usually radial) the water-hammer pulse

The pulse of aortic regurgitation is, sometimes at least, very striking and peculiar: sudden, like the blow of a hammer, without any prolonged swell of the artery. This pulse always reminds me of the well-known chemical toy, formed by including a small quantity of liquid in a glass tube, exhausted of air, and hermetically sealed. On reversing the tube, the liquid falls from one end of it to the other with a hard short knock, as if it were a mass of lead. The sensation given to the finger by the pulse, when there is much regurgitation through the aortic valves, is very similar to this. It is as if successive balls of blood were suddenly shot along under the finger.
Dr. Hope calls this pulse a jerking pulse; the pulse of unfilled arteries. And this abrupt pulse makes itself visible in the arteries; the wave of blood lifts, and moves, and sometimes contorts the vessel. When this kind of pulse occurs with a diastolic bellows-sound heard along the track of the aorta, and the short clack of the second sound is absent or muffled, you may be quite sure that the aortic orifice is patulous during the diastole. The reflux of the blood, when the patency is great, is strong enough sometimes to produce a palpable shock or jog, called the diastolic impulse. And this refilling of the ventricle from the artery may even provoke it to a supernumerary contraction.
Thomas Watson. Lecture 60 (1842: 647)

Note: In 1933, the eminent cardiologist Sir Thomas Lewis described the quality of the water-hammer pulse-wave of aortic incompetence.

If a globule of mercury is sealed into a glass tube 2 inches long, and this is held by its ends between thumb and little finger and tipped up, it delivers a pulse closely resembling that of free aortic regurgitation. The water-hammer was a similar toy.
Lewis 1933: 121

Major Publications

Watson T. Some cases of transposition observed in the human body. London Medical Gazette. 1836; 18: 393-403
Watson T. The second sound of the heart. London Medical Gazette. 1837; 19: 526-528
Watson T. Diseases of the heart. Lecture 60 on the principles and practice of physic. London Medical Gazette. 1842 Jan 21; 29: 641–650 [Watson water-hammer pulse p647]
Watson T. Lectures on the principles and practice of physic. [Lectures from King’s College, London 1836-1837] 1844
Watson T. Watson abridged: synopsis of the Lectures on the principles and practice of physic, delivered at King’s College, London. 1867
Watson T. The abolition of zymotic diseases. 1879