William Broadbent

Broadbent was born at Longwood Edge in Lindley, now part of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. He was the eldest of seven children born to John Broadbent, a wool manufacturer and prominent Wesleyan, and Esther (née Butterworth). His younger brother was Colonel John Edward Broadbent . He was educated at Huddersfield College before he decided to study medicine. He was apprenticed to a doctor in Manchester before studying medicine at Owens College, and the Royal School of Medicine in Manchester. He studied in Paris in 1857 and returned in 1858 to pass the M.B. examination at Manchester. ==Career==

In 1859, Broadbent took up a junior post at St Mary's Hospital, London, with which he was associated for much of his career (1859–1896). The next year he was elected physician to the London Fever Hospital. In 1865, he was promoted to physician in charge of patients at St. Mary's, and full physician in 1871. It was through his work at St. Mary's that Broadbent earned his reputation as an expert pathologist and outstanding clinical teacher. His areas of expertise included neurology and cardiology, as well as cancer and typhoid. ==Honours==

Broadbent received honorary doctorates from the universities of Edinburgh, where he obtained a M.D. with the thesis On the connection between diseases of the heart and apoplexy, St. Andrews, Leeds, McGill and Toronto. ==Personal life==

Broadbent married Eliza Harpin in 1863, and had three sons and three daughters: • Mary Ethel (1864 – 10 March 1954) • John Francis Harpin (16 October 1865 – 27 January 1946) • William Herbert (10 April 1867 – 17 May 1867) • Walter (4 August 1868 – 17 October 1951) • Gertrude (1870 – 2 August 1905) • Eliza Madeleine (1872 – 17 December 1949) His sons John and Walter also became physicians. He died at his home in London in 1907, following an eighth-month illness that began with pneumonia. His eldest son succeeded him in the baronetcy. ==Associated eponyms==

• Broadbent apoplexy: A type of stroke caused by a cerebral haemorrhage into the ventricular system. • Broadbent sign: Recession of the intercostal spaces (near the eleventh and twelfth ribs on the left side of the back) as a sign of adherent pericardium (this sign was first described by his son, Walter Broadbent, in 1895). • Broadbent inverted sign: Pulsations synchronising with ventricular systole on the posterior lateral wall of the chest in gross dilatation of the left atrium. • Broadbent law: Medical law that states "lesions of the upper segment of the motor tract cause less marked paralysis of muscles that habitually produce bilateral movements than of those that commonly act independently of the opposite side". == Selected writings ==

• Cancer: A New Method of Treatment (London, 1866) • The Practice of Medicine, (revised by Sir William Broadbent; 7th ed., London 1875) • The Pulse (largely a reproduction of the Croonian Lectures, 1887), (London, 1890) • Heart Disease, With Special Reference to Prognosis and Treatment, (with John Francis Harpin Broadbent), (London, 1897) ==References==

• Biography of Willam Henry Broadbent •