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John Alexander MacWilliam (31 July 1857 – 13 January 1937), a physiologist at the University of Aberdeen in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was a pioneer in the field of cardiac electrophysiology. He spent many years studying ventricular fibrillation, and was the first person to propose that ventricular fibrillation was the most common cause of sudden death - and that fibrillation could be terminated (and life potentially saved) by a series of induction shocks to the heart.〔Dos Santos Cruz Filho FE, Chamberlain D : (Resuscitation great: John Alexander MacWilliam ), Resuscitation (Apr 2006) 69(1) :3-7〕 He was the first to accurately describe the condition of arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), and he suggested transthoracic pacing to treat transient asystole (cardiac arrest).〔Silverman ME, Fye WB, Hurst JW (2006): (John A. MacWilliam: Scottish pioneer of cardiac electrophysiology: ) Clin Cardiol. 2006 Feb;29(2):90-2〕 Although his work was recognised within his lifetime, it was not until many decades later that it laid the foundations for developments in the understanding and treatment of life-threatening heart conditions, such as in the artificial cardiac pacemaker. MacWilliam was appointed Regius Professor of the Institutes of Medicine (later Physiology) at the University of Aberdeen〔 at the age of 29 in 1886, and remained in that post for 41 years until his retirement in 1927. ==Background== 〔Professor A. Keith (1937) "John Alexander MacWilliam 1857 - 1936", Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, pp:335-338〕 〔"Miss Reid and Mrs MacWilliam", Aberdeen University Review (1939), p65〕 MacWilliam was born 31 July 1857 at Kiltarlity, near Beauly, Inverness-shire in Scotland,〔("J. A. MacWilliam, M.D., LL.D., FRS." ) Obituary in British Medical Journal, (Jan 23, 1937), page 199〕 where his father was farmer at Culmill farm. His parents were William McWilliam (1814 - 1888) and his wife Isabella Cumming (1816 - 1887) who had moved around 1850 from the neighbouring parishes of Inveravon (sometimes spelled Inveraven) and Knockando on Speyside to the farm at Culmill. His mother Isabella Cumming was the youngest daughter of John and Helen Cumming, founders of the Cardhu whisky distillery on Speyside. John Alexander had two siblings. His elder brother, William Lewis McWilliam, was born at Kiltarlity in 1855. He stayed as farmer at Culmill and married Mary Burns. They had no children. William was a respected farmer and an Inverness-shire County Councillor, who was also chairman of the local schools committee and chairman of the Parish Council for over 30 years. He died in 1936, aged 81. His sister, Isabella Helen McWilliam, was born 12.10.1859 and died in infanthood – at the age of just 16 months. Around the late 1880s, he chose to alter the spelling of his name to MacWilliam rather than McWilliam. His published papers until 1889 are under the McWilliam spelling. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Alexander MacWilliam」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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