William G. Lennox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Part of a series on
Protestant missions to China
Robert Morrison

Background
Christianity
Protestantism
Chinese history
Missions timeline
Christianity in China
Nestorian China missions
Catholic China missions
Jesuit China missions
Protestant China missions

People
Karl Gützlaff
J. Hudson Taylor
Lammermuir Party
Lottie Moon
Timothy Richard
Jonathan Goforth
Cambridge Seven
Eric Liddell
Gladys Aylward
(more missionaries)

Missionary agencies
China Inland Mission
London Missionary Society
American Board
Church Missionary Society
US Presbyterian Mission
(more agencies)

Impact
Chinese Bible
Medical missions in China
Manchurian revival
Chinese Colleges
Chinese Hymnody
Chinese Roman Type
Cantonese Roman Type
Anti-Footbinding
Anti-Opium

Pivotal events
Taiping Rebellion
Opium Wars
Unequal Treaties
Yangzhou riot
Tianjin Massacre
Boxer Crisis
Xinhai Revolution
Chinese Civil War
WW II
People's Republic

Chinese Protestants
Liang Fa
Keuh Agong
Xi Shengmo
Sun Yat-sen
Feng Yuxiang
John Sung
Wang Mingdao
Allen Yuan
Samuel Lamb

This box: view  talk  edit

William Gordon Lennox (1884–1960) was an American neurologist who was a pioneer in the use of electroencephalography (EEG) for the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy.

Lennox first became interested in epilepsy when working as medical missionary in China.[1]. At the Harvard Medical School, he worked alongside and published many papers with Stanley Cobb and Erna and Frederic Gibbs. Lennox was president of the International League Against Epilepsy from 1935 to 1946. After a period as co-editor, he became the editor-in-chief of the journal Epilepsia from 1945 to 1950.[2] He was jointly awarded (with Frederic Gibbs) the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research in 1951. He wrote, with his daughter Margaret, "Epilepsy and Related Disorders" (Vols. 1 and 2, Little Brown & Co, Boston, 1960), which contains his description of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.

In 1937, Lennox described the situation regarding the medical treatment of epilepsy at the time:

"In the US there are some 500,000 persons subject to epilepsy. This is approximately the same number as have diabetes or active tuberculosis. In Roman days a seizure in the forum caused its dissolution; now a seizure in a classroom means dismissal of the offending student. In the US we have only the extremes of care in the home, or in largely publicly supported institutions into which the dregs of patients have settled. From the practical point of view, patients with epilepsy are an unusually valuable group for human experimentation. They are numerous, and are available to the research staff of the general hospital; they can usually give intelligent co-operation; they are pathetically anxious to be experimented upon; they have abrupt and unmistakable changes from normal to abnormal states. Epilepsy comparatively speaking has been a neglected field. To the epileptic writhing on the road of medicine, the investigator has perhaps given a cup of cold water, but then has passed by to succour those with illnesses which seemed more likely to reward his efforts. From the humanitarian point of view, epileptics are peculiarly in need of help."[3]

Lennox was also involved with the eugenics movement. He gave a speech in 1938 to Harvard's Phi Beta Kappa, recommending euthanasia for "the congenitally mindless and for the incurable sick who wish to die".[4] In the same year, he wrote "The principle of limiting certain races through limitation of off-spring might be applied internationally as well as intranationally. Germany, in time, might have solved her Jewish problem this way."[5] In 1943, Lennox joined the advisory council of the Euthanasia Society of America (later known as Partnership for Caring). In 1950, he wrote an article entitled "The Moral Issue", calling for the mercy killing of "children with undeveloped or misformed brains" as a way of opening up space in "our hopelessly clogged institutions."[6]

He continued working into his 70s, only retiring from Harvard in 1958. He died two years later.

[edit] Partial bibliography

  • The Health and Turnover of Missionaries (1933)
  • Science and Seizures: New Light on Epilepsy and Migraine (1941)
  • Epilepsy and Related Disorders (1960)

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ "William Lennox Obituary", New York Times, 1960-07-23. Retrieved on 2006-02-22. 
  2. ^ Harry Meinardi. Appendix IV, EPILEPSIA ISSUES. ILAE History. International League Against Epilepsy. Retrieved on 2006-02-22.
  3. ^ Lennox, William G. (February 1937). "Title unknown". Epilepsia 2nd Series, Vol.1. 
  4. ^ Jennifer Terry (ed); Jacqueline Urla (ed) (1995). Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture (Race, Gender, and Science). Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-20975-7. 
  5. ^ Lennox, W. G. (1938). "Should they live? Certain economic aspects of medicine". American Scholar 7: 454–66. 
  6. ^ Dowbiggin, Ian (2003). A Merciful End : The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America. USA: Oxford University Press, 198. ISBN 0-19-515443-6. 
Languages