While a first-year student at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, James Paget discovered trichina in muscle during dissection. Richard Owen, his teacher, named it Trichina spiralis and published an account, barely mentioning Paget. It was renamed Trichinella spiralis in 1896.

Paget communicated his discovery to the Abernethian Society at St. Bartholomew’s on 6 Feb, 1835; an abstract of his paper was published in the Transactions of the society, vol. 2. Paget later recorded the chronology of the discovery in a letter to the Lancet, 1866, 1, 269. This and his unpublished article intended for Lond. med. Gaz., 1835, was reproduced by Kean (No. 2268.1), p. 458-62. The letter was also published in Bull. Hist. Med., 1979, 53, 547.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Paget-Schroetter syndrome, venous obstruction in the upper extremity.

First description of “Paget’s disease of the nipple” –eczema of the nipple with cancer. The paper is reprinted in Med. Classics, 1936, 1, 75-78. Paget was Sergeant Surgeon to Queen Victoria, and a great surgical pathologist. He was associated with St. Bartholomew’s Hospital during most of his life.

Paget was at one time Sergeant Surgeon to Queen Victoria. His classic description of osteitis deformans led that condition to be called “Paget’s disease”. Reprinted in Med. Classics, 1936, 1, 29-71.