Alfred Poland

Sir Alfred Poland (1822 - August 21, 1872) was a 19th century British surgeon. He is now best known for the first account of Poland syndrome, a congenital deformity now described as an underdevelopment or absence of the chest muscle (pectoralis) on one side of the body and webbing of the fingers (cutaneous syndactyly) of the hand on the same side (ipsilateral hand).

Poland described the disease that bears his name (Poland syndrome) in 1841, in a paper titled "Deficiency of the pectoral muscles" (Guy's Hosp. Rep. 6:191-193, 1841), in which he described the dissected body of George Elt, a deceased convict. He received the eponym more than a century later in 1962 through the recognition of British surgeon Patrick Wensley Clarkson (1911-1969) after he operated on a case similar to that of Poland.

Poland was born in London and educated in Paris and Frankfurt. In 1839, he was became an apprentice of Charles Aston Key (1798-1849) at Guy's Hospital, London, and, in 1845, after qualification, he became demonstrator of anatomy. He had then been a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England since 1843, becoming a fellow in 1847.

In 1849, Poland became assistant surgeon at Guy's Hospital. Following the death of Bransby Blake Cooper (1792-1853), he took over Cooper’s lectures on surgery. He was elevated to the rank of surgeon in 1861, when, after the retirement of France, he took charge of the ophthalmology department. He also held an appointment at the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields.

Alfred Poland was a modest, retiring man, who was quite careless about his appearance. He was warned by the Treasurer to dress more decently and cleanly, but ignored this advice. He was known by his colleagues to be an excellent surgeon, but would time his operations at unusual hours so that few observed him. Perhaps for those reasons, he had a small practice.

Apart from his surgical dexterity he was renowned at the hospital for his encyclopedic knowledge and the excellence of his presentations, both oral and written. He was an extremely popular teacher, but his career was punctuated by recurrent illness so that he remarked that he was like a cat and had nine lives. After one severe bout of hemoptysis, his physician ordered him to bed, only to see him the next day doing the rounds with his students.

In 1867, chronic cough ascribed to exposure of infection in the ward forced Poland to cease lecturing, and thereafter his health gradually declined. He lived his last years retired in Blackheath with his father. Poland died in 1872 at the age of 51 of "consumption of the lungs" (pulmonary tuberculosis).

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