H.S. Purdon
| Dr H.S. Purdon MD | |||||||||
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| Born | 1843 | ||||||||
| Died | 1906 | ||||||||
| Residence |
Clonlion House, Kilcoch, Ireland 5 College Square East, Belfast [Aug. 1866] | ||||||||
| Occupation | medical | ||||||||
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Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
proposed 1866.09.05
Notes From Elsewhere
Henry Samuel Purdon (1843-1906)
H. S. Purdon was the pioneer of dermatology in Northern Ireland. ... he was a corresponding member of the New York Dermatological Society.
The first record of dermatology in Belfast is in 1865, when Henry Samuel Purdon (1843–1906), aged 22, established the ‘Belfast Dispensary for Diseases of the Skin’ at a house in Academy Street3. Purdon received his medical training in Glasgow, and when he returned to Belfast, he realised the need for a dermatological service and decided to specialise in skin disease. Finances were always stretched, and at stages Purdon asked his many sisters to donate some of their pocket money to keep the dispensary running. During that time Purdon used his artistic talents to create wax models of skin, particularly that of lupus vulgaris, particularly prevalent at the time. With increasing demand the clinics grew and the house in Academy Street in 1866 quickly assumed the title of “The Belfast Hospital for Diseases of the Skin”. Purdon's interests extended beyond dermatology: he was one of the physicians to the original Forster Green Hospital for Chest Diseases, which commenced its career at the corner of Great Victoria Street and Fisherwick Place.
By 1868 the original building was becoming too small for requirements and the committee were granted funding from the Belfast Charitable Society, to build a new hospital in Regent Street, which was opened in 1869. The new building provided mainly out-patient facilities, but also had 8 in-patient beds. The out-patient department and operating theatre were considered adequate, commodious and up-to-date. As reputation spread, patients came not only from Belfast but also from surrounding counties.
Within four years of the opening of the Regents Street Skin hospital, despite increased bed numbers of 14, clinical needs had become too great for the space available. Once again financial restrictions were to become too great and in 1873 a public benefactor; Edward H Benn financed the building of a brand new skin hospital at a cost of £40001. The hospital was regarded as the most complete of its kind in the United Kingdom, and Purdon stated in the preface to one of his books (“Cutaneous Medicine and Diseases of the Skin,” 1875), it “contained thirty beds and a suite of baths of every description.”3 It was also well equipped with its own pathology laboratories, operating rooms and pharmacy. The Belfast Charitable Society offered a site for construction at Glenravel Street and in 1875 the new Benn Skin Hospital was opened. Glenravel was the site of the iron ore deposits in County Antrim owned by the Benn family. Professor J.F. Hodges, whose home, Glenravel House, gave Glenravel Street its name, was Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at the developing Queen's University. He was elected president of the Benn Hospital and served in this capacity for 20 years.
In addition to his clinical commitments, Purdon was heavily involved in undergraduate teaching. He became widely known in developing dermatological circles in the UK, Europe and the US, as a corresponding member of the New York Dermatological Society. In 1870, Purdon acquired the position of Editor of the Journal of Cutaneous Medicine at the age of 26 years. Despite his best efforts, financial support for the journal became inadequate and the journal ceased publication, with the British Journal of Dermatology taking its place in 18881.
Dr Henry Purdon was appointed as an attending physician to the General Hospital in 1870, with an interest in dermatology, though with no designated responsibility in dermatology. Dr Purdon resigned from the hospital staff in 1882, unusually without ever having been made a Consultant Physician. This left a hiatus in dermatology services until McGaw re-established dermatology at the Royal Victoria Hospital in the 1900's.
Amid a busy practice Purdon continued active work at Glenravel Street Hospital until about 1900; his assistants were his son, Elias Bell Purdon and Samuel William Allworthy, both of whom were appointed in 1893. The half-century of excellent work carried out at the Skin Hospital by these two physicians is well known, and only ceased there when the hospital was destroyed in an air-raid in May 1941. Elias Bell Purdon, Henry Samuel Purdon's son, was the fourth generation of his family to attend as physician to the Belfast Charitable Society, and at the time of his death, his family had given 143 years unbroken service to the Society1.
During a bombing raid in the Second World War the Benn Skin Hospital was badly damaged and it was decided not to rebuild it but to use funds for the improvement of the amenities in the nearby and developing Royal Victoria Hospital3. Dermatology remained a mainly outpatient specialty, with a few dermatology beds in ward 22 in the Royal Victoria Hospital, introduced in 1951. A dermatology ward was finally established in 1957 (ward 26) and H.S. Purdon's service to dermatology was recognised by naming this in-patient unit, ‘The Purdon Skin Ward’, a ward which was to become well know to generations of doctors and future dermatologists.
Publications
External Publications
various papers on skin diseases
Editor of the Journal of Cutaneous Medicine
