Sir William Bowman, 1st Baronet

Infobox Scientist
name = Sir William Bowman, 1st Baronet
box_width =


image_width = 150px
caption = Sir William Bowman, 1st Baronet
birth_date = July 20, 1816
birth_place = Nantwich, Cheshire, England
death_date = March 29, 1892
death_place = Dorking, Surrey
residence =
citizenship =
nationality = English
ethnicity =
field = surgeon histologist anatomist
work_institutions =
alma_mater =
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for = microscopes
author_abbrev_bot =
author_abbrev_zoo =
influences =
influenced =
prizes =
religion =
footnotes =

Sir William Bowman, 1st Baronet (July 20, 1816 - March 29, 1892) was an English surgeon, histologist & anatomist. He is most famous for his research using microscopes to study various human organs, though during his lifetime he pursued a successful career as an ophthalmologist.

Born in Nantwich, Cheshire, England, third son of a banker & amateur botanist/geologist, Bowman attended Hazelwood School near Birmingham from 1826.Hale-White, W. (1935) 'Sir William Bowman', pp177-188; in "Great Doctors of the Nineteenth Century", Edward Arnold & Co] A childhood accident involving gunpowder is supposed to have interested him in medicine, and he was apprenticed to surgeon Joseph Hodgson at Birmingham General Hospital in 1832. He left Birmingham in 1837 to further his training as a surgeon and attended King's College London, where he served as a prosector under Robert Bentley Todd, a professor of physiology.

His earliest notable work was on the structure of striated muscle, for which he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1841. At the young age of 25, he identified what then became known as the Bowman's capsule, a key component of the nephron. He presented his findings in 1842 in his paper "On the Structure and Use of the Malpighian Bodies of the Kidney" to the Royal Society and was awarded the Royal Medal. His collaboration with Todd led to the publication of the five-volume "Physiological Anatomy and Physiology of Man" (1843-1856) and "Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology" (1852), which detailed their research on microscopy and histology, relating minute anatomical observations to physiological functions. Their extensive use of the microscopes revolutionized the study of anatomy and physiology. Apart from the Bowman's capsule, other anatomical structures named after him include:
* Bowman's glands — in the olfactory mucosa
* Bowman's membrane — the "anterior limiting membrane" in the cornea

After completing his surgical training in 1844, Bowman practised as an ophthalmologist at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital (later known as Moorfields Eye Hospital). He was an early user of the opthalmoscope invented by Hermann von Helmholtz in 1851. Between 1848 and 1855, he also taught at King's College. In 1880, he founded the 'Ophthalmological Society', which later became the [http://www.rcophth.ac.uk/ Royal College of Ophthalmologists] .

In 1884, Queen Victoria created him as a baronet. He died at his house, Joldwynds, near Dorking, in Surrey in 1892.

References

*Citation
id = PMID:17450657
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17450657
last=Galst
first=Jay M
publication-date=2007 April
year=2007
title=Sir William Bowman (1816-1892).
volume=125
issue=4
periodical=Arch. Ophthalmol.
pages=459
*Citation
id = PMID:16465470
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16465470
last=Frixione
first=Eugenio
publication-date=2006
year=2006
title=Muscle microanatomy and its changes during contraction: the legacy of William Bowman (1816-1892).
volume=27
issue=1
periodical=J. Muscle Res. Cell. Motil.
pages=9-20
doi = 10.1007/s10974-005-9048-z
*Citation
id = PMID:10994045
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10994045
last=Haviv
first=Y S
publication-date=2000 February
year=2000
title=Figures in the historical dispute over renal function. Part II: Karl Ludwig versus Rudolph Heidenhain and William Bowman.
volume=8
issue=1
periodical=Journal of medical biography
pages=32-8
*Citation
id = PMID:8943499
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8943499
last=Eknoyan
first=G
publication-date=1996 December
year=1996
title=Sir William Bowman: his contributions to physiology and nephrology.
volume=50
issue=6
periodical=Kidney Int.
pages=2120-8
*Citation
id = PMID:1420050
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1420050
last=Roman
first=F S
publication-date=1992 October
year=1992
title=Sir William Bowman.
volume=76
issue=10
periodical=The British journal of ophthalmology
pages=639
*Citation
id = PMID:1540552
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1540552
last=Trevor-Roper
first=P
publication-date=1992 March
year=1992
title=Sir William Bowman—1816-1892.
volume=76
issue=3
periodical=The British journal of ophthalmology
pages=129
*Citation
id = PMID:11612284
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11612284
last=Davis
first=B T
publication-date=1982
year=1982
title=The formative years of Sir William Bowman, F. R. S.
volume=17
issue=Spec 2
periodical=Histoire des sciences médicales
pages=169-71
*Citation
id = PMID:1092012
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1092012
last=Law
first=F W
publication-date=
year=
title=Sir William Bowman.
volume=19
issue=5
periodical=Survey of ophthalmology
pages=302-7
*Citation
id = PMID:4556711
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4556711
last=Lilien
first=O M
publication-date=1972 July
year=1972
title=Sir William Bowman (1816-1892).
volume=10
issue=1
periodical=Investigative urology
pages=107-8
*Citation
id = PMID:4113808
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4113808
last=Grondona
first=F
publication-date=1971 September
year=1971
title= [Structure and function of the kidney according to William Bowman]
volume=6
issue=3
periodical=Clio medica (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
pages=195-204
*Citation
id = PMID:5330007
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5330007
last=Thomas
first=K B
publication-date=1966 July
year=1966
title=The manuscripts of Sir William Bowman.
volume=10
issue=3
periodical=Medical history
pages=245-56

External links

* Heath, Parker. [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=234136&pageindex=1 Sir William Bowman] . "Bull Med Libr Assoc." 1936 May; 24(4): 205–208. Scanned pages of the original article, at PubMed Central.
* Thomas, K.B. [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1033604&blobtype=pdf The manuscripts of Sir William Bowman] . "Med Hist." 1966 July; 10(3): 245–256. PDF article at PubMed Central.

Publications by Sir William Bowman

* cite book
last= Todd
first= Robert Bentley
coauthors= Bowman, William
title= The Physiological Anatomy and Physiology of Man
origyear=
url= http://books.google.com.au/books?id=rfglMUpvO2oC
accessdate=2008-08-03
date=
year= 1857
publisher= Blanchard and Lea
location= Philadelphia, full download available at Google Book Search.

* cite book
last= Bowman
first= William
coauthors=
title= Lectures on the parts concerned in the operations on the eye, and on the structure of the retina: Delivered at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, June 1847. To which are Added, a Paper on the Vitreous Humor; and Also a Few Cases of Ophthalmic Disease
origyear=
language =
url= http://books.google.com.au/books?id=njIEAAAAQAAJ
accessdate=
date=
year= 1849
publisher= Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans
location= London, full download available at Google Book Search.

Persondata
NAME = Bowman, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Baronet of Holmbury St Mary
SHORT DESCRIPTION = surgeon, histologist, anatomist
DATE OF BIRTH = July 20, 1816
PLACE OF BIRTH = Nantwich, Cheshire, England
DATE OF DEATH = March 29, 1892
PLACE OF DEATH = Dorking, Surrey