John James Pringle
Encyclopedia
Borgue, Stewartry of Kirkcudbright
Borgue is a village in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland. It lies 5 miles south-west of Kirkcudbright and 6 miles south of Gatehouse of Fleet.-Notable people from Borgue:...
, Kirkcudbrightshire
Kirkcudbrightshire
The Stewartry of Kirkcudbright or Kirkcudbrightshire was a county of south-western Scotland. It was also known as East Galloway, forming the larger Galloway region with Wigtownshire....
and educated at Merchiston Castle school
Merchiston Castle School
Merchiston Castle School is an independent school for boys in the village of Colinton in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has about 480 pupils and is open to boys between the ages of 8 and 18 as either boarders or day pupils; day pupils make up 35% of the school....
. He graduated in medicine from Edinburgh University in 1876. He then travelled abroad, studying in Dublin, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, studying dermatology in Vienna under Ferdinand von Hebra and Moriz Kaposi, and in Paris under Jean Baptiste Emile Vidal
Jean Baptiste Emile Vidal
Jean Baptiste Emile Vidal was a French dermatologist who was a native of Paris. He studied medicine in Tours and Paris, becoming médecin des hôpitaux in 1862. For much of his career he was associated with the Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris...
and Jean Alfred Fournier
Jean Alfred Fournier
Jean Alfred Fournier was a French dermatologist who specialized in the study of venereal diseases.As a young man he served as an interne at the Hôpital du Midi as an understudy to Philippe Ricord . In 1863 he became médecine des hôpitaux, and from 1867 worked with Augustin Grisolle at the...
.
He settled in London in 1882. From 1888 to 1920, we worked as a dermatologist at the Middlesex Hospital
Middlesex Hospital
The Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, United Kingdom. First opened in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally closed in 2005. Its staff and services were transferred to various sites...
in London. He caught tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
and spent six months of 1903 in a sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
. He never fully recovered and, whilst on a trip intended to improve his health, he died at Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. He is related to Sir John Pringle
John Pringle
Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet, FRS was a Scottish physician who has been called the "father of military medicine" ....
.
Adenoma sebaceum
JJ Pringle is primarily remembered for the eponymEponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
: Pringle's Adenoma Sebaceum. Now known as facial angiofibroma, this papular facial rash, of distinctive butterfly distribution, was first described in English by Pringle. In 1890 he reported in detail the case of a 25 year old woman, who was not "particularly bright intellectually" and had presented with both skin and digestive complaints. He described the papules in detail, noting the capiliary involvement and their fibrous nature. He believed that the sebaceous glands were the source of the problem. Pringle was unfamiliar with the condition so presented his patient to a meeting of the Dermatological Society in 1889-01-09. Two visitors recognised a similarity with models in the Museum of the Saint Louis Hospital in Paris. This led Pringle to become acquainted with five other cases, two previously published, that he includes in his report.
Pringle adopted the term "adenoma sebaceum" from Félix Balzer
Félix Balzer
Félix Balzer was a French physician, specialising in dermatology and pathology.Balzer gave an early description of pseudoxanthoma elasticum in 1884. He used the term "xanthome elastique" but subsequently it was found not to be a form of xanthomatosis...
's phrase "adénomes sébacés". The papules were in fact neither adenoma
Adenoma
An adenoma is a benign tumor of glandular origin. Adenomas can grow from many organs including the colon, adrenal glands, pituitary gland, thyroid, prostate, etc. Although these growths are benign, over time they may progress to become malignant, at which point they are called adenocarcinomas...
nor derived from sebaceous glands. Pringle dismisses one report of a hereditary aspect as "dubious". The patients are generally recultant to submit to treatment, which leads to considerable bleeding and pain.
Several years later, physicians would note the combination of adenoma sebaceum, epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
and idiocy was diagnosic for tuberous sclerosis
Tuberous sclerosis
Tuberous sclerosis or tuberous sclerosis complex is a rare multi-system genetic disease that causes non-malignant tumors to grow in the brain and on other vital organs such as the kidneys, heart, eyes, lungs, and skin. A combination of symptoms may include seizures, developmental delay, behavioral...
. The three signs are known as Vogt
Heinrich Vogt
Heinrich Vogt was a German neurologist. He published papers on tuberous sclerosis and Batten disease. Later he became a professor of psychiatry and published a handbook on the treatment of nervous diseases...
's triad. Although Pringle's report does not mention epilepsy, most of the patients are of limited intelligence, and these cases are regarded as early accounts of tuberous sclerosis.
Achievements
- 1891–1895, editor of the British Journal of DermatologyBritish Journal of DermatologyThe British Journal of Dermatology is a British monthly medical journal that focuses on the field of dermatology. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell for the British Association of Dermatologists and is edited by Tanya O. Bleiker. In 2009, it had an impact factor of 4.260 and an immediacy index of...
. - 1895–1901, secretary of the Dermatological Society.
- 1896, appointed Secretary General to the International Congress of Dermatology.
- President of the dermatology section of the Royal Society of Medicine