The first book in English on the action of poisons on the living body.

First therapeutic employment of static electricity.

Originally issued in three parts from 1836 to 1839 when the authors were joint lecturers on medicine at Guy’s Hospital.

Addison included a classic description of pernicious (Addisonian) anemia in his papers on the condition later known as “Addison’s disease”. Although preceded by Combe, his account was more important in bringing the disease to the notice of the medical profession. See also No. 3864.

In their classic account of xanthoma multiplex, Addison and Gull believed they were describing a new disease, but Rayer had been the first to mention it. (See No. 3989; see also the later paper by Gull, Guy’s Hosp. Rep., 1852, 2 ser., 8, 149.)

Addison described two forms of keloid, that described by Alibert, and the “true keloid” (the skin disease morphoea, “Addison’s keloid”).

Addison was the first to draw attention to the importance of the adrenals in clinical medicine. The above work first appeared in the Lond. med. Gaz., 1849, 43, 517-18, and was later expanded into book form. It described the conditions, which later became known as “Addison’s disease” and pernicious anemia, which was later renamed “Addisonian anemia” by Trousseau. Text reprinted in Med. Classics, 1937, 2, 244-77. Facsimile edition, London, Dawson, 1968.

Addison was a contemporary of Bright at Guy’s Hospital and a fine lecturer.