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Michael Underwood (29 September 1737 – 14 March 1820) was an English physician and surgeon, born in West Molesey in Surrey. [1] He is a relevant figure in the history of medicine and pediatrics for having given the first known description of several childhood diseases, infantile paralysis and polio included.
- British
- Physician
In 1789, an English physician Michael Underwood gave the first clinical description where he referred to polio as “debility of the lower extremities.” Polio was known as Heine-Medin disease due to the contributions of physicians Jakob Heine and Karl Oskar Medin in 1840. 2,3
- Man Mohan Mehndiratta, Prachi Mehndiratta, Renuka Pande
- 10.1177/1941874414533352
- 2014
- Neurohospitalist. 2014 Oct; 4(4): 223-229.
Michael Underwood, A Treatise on the Diseases of Children…. Here begins the first account of polio in the section entitled, “Debility of the Lower Extremities.” Underwood was born in Surrey, England. He studied surgery and midwifery, a discipline that included pediatrics as well as obstetrics, in London and Paris.
Michael Underwood was born of respectable parents on the 29 September 1737. He received a good education, first at West Monsley School and then at Kensington in London. Planning to enter the medical profession, he came under the tuition of the eminent surgeon Sir Caesar Hawkins (sergeant‐surgeon to George II), who introduced him as a house ...
- P M Dunn
- 10.1136/adc.2005.074526
- 2006
- 2006/03
Nov 9, 2017 · Although polio has a long history, the earliest written medical description of the virus was not recorded until 1789, when Michael Underwood M.D. in England, described patients who typically had a fever accompanied with a “debility of the lower extremities,” or paralysis of the lower body.
The written accounts (Treatise on Diseases of Children, 1789) of the English physician and surgeon Michael Underwood are revelatory as they furnish the first clinical descriptions of polio noted in the medical literature.
Dec 18, 2012 · The disease was given its first clinical description in 1789 by the British physician Michael Underwood, and recognised as a condition by Jakob Heine in 1840. The first modern epidemics were...
