Francis Sibson (1814-1876): A serial specialist

In a diverse career Sibson performed some of the earliest saline infusions for cholera, some of the first experiments with curare and its possible use in rabies and he was among the first British authors to distinguish between typhoid and typhus. He published on respiratory physiology and mechanisms of respiration and on the anatomy of the chest and abdominal viscera including the changes caused by movement and disease. He investigated the use of ether and chloroform to treat neuralgia, probably practised surgical anaesthesia and sat on a commission investigating the safety of chloroform. His interests later changed to cardiac disease, especially pericarditis, endocarditis and aortic aneurysms. His membership of medical societies led to an involvement in medical politics, such as the conditions of service of army and poor law doctors, the sale of arsenic, reform of the membership of the General Medical Council and The Nomenclature of Disease which was an early and very successful attempt at the classification of diseases. He was invited to give evidence to a Royal Commission on vivisection and sat on several government committees and enquiries including the siting and design of infectious diseases and Poor Law hospitals and the Metropolitan District Asylums Board.