Robert Carswell: the first illustrator of MS

The first illustration of multiple sclerosis (MS) was by a young Scottish physician and artist, Dr Robert Carswell. Recognized as a talented illustrator by his teachers, he was encouraged to create an anatomy and pathology atlas. He spent years in the hospitals and mortuaries of Paris and Lyon painting watercolours and pen and ink drawings of patients and post mortem preparations. Of the 1034 paintings, 99 are of the brain and spinal cord and Plate 4, figure 4.4 in the atlas (Figure 2), is of MS. Carswell indicated he saw two examples of this pathology, but had not examined either patient, but illustrated one of them. We know little about the clinical history other than that the patient was paralyzed. About 200 of the atlases were printed, and it is still regarded as one of the greatest and most beautiful of all medical books. Carswell was appointed as the first Professor of Anatomy at the North London Hospital, later renamed the University College Hospital UK, where the original copy of his great atlas is archived. Due to ill health he resigned after a few years to reside in the healthier air outside Brussels, Belgium. He was appointed physician to King Leopold, but was also noted for his care of the poor. Queen Victoria knighted him for his care of King Louis Philippe of France when he was in exile. Although English journals did not note his passing at the age of 64 years, his great atlas remains as his memorial.