Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1127

CALEB HILLIER PARRY (1755-1822) An inquiry into the symptoms and causes of the syncope anginosa, commonly called angina pectoris. Printed by R. Cruttwell 1799 [6] 167, iii pp. 22 cm.

Born in Gloucestershire, Parry began his medical education at Edinburgh in 1773. After two years at Edinburgh, he went to London where he studied for an additional two years, returning to Edinburgh to complete his degree in 1778. He subsequently entered private practice at Bath where he spent the remainder of his professional career. Parry's clinical skills and abilities were of a high order and he ranks as one of the great English clinicians of the eighteenth century. He described the clinical manifestations of facial hemiatrophy, rabies, tetanus, dilatation of the colon, exophthalmic goiter, and the nature and cause of the arterial pulse. In this important contribution to the understanding of the coronary circulation, Parry recognizes the work of Heberden (see No. 908 ff.) and Jenner (see No. 1086 ff.). Here he reports on several patients suffering from what he termed "syncope anginosa" and concludes that the condition is caused by disease of the coronary arteries. Writing in Alfred P. Fishman and Dickinson W. Richards' Circulation of the blood; Men and ideas (New York, 1964), Richard J. Bing commented that "An outstanding feature of the book is its logical reasoning as to the disordered physiological process that could induce such attacks" (p. 220).

See Related Record(s): 908 1086

Cited references: Cushing P121; Garrison-Morton 2888; Osler 3622; Waller 7212 (German ed., Breslau, 1801)

Gift of William B. Bean, M.D