George Edward Donovan

George Edward Donovan was born in Youghal, County Cork, Ireland, and graduated MB, BCh, BAO from the University of Ireland in 1931. He gained an MSc in 1936 and proceeded gaining an MD in 1946.

In 1931 he moved to England and spent one year in general practice in Felling, Newcastle upon Tyne. For the next two years he held resident posts at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, Gwent, where he met his future wife Kathleen. He moved to Swansea in 1936 and held the post of assistant medical officer of health to the newly formed Llwcher Urban District Council and Gower Rural District Council and medical superintendent of Garngoch Hospital. In 1948 he became medical officer of health for West Glamorgan.

Medical Research

Dr Donovan’s inclinations were towards medicine as a science, and consequently he devoted all his spare time to research. During the second world war he carried out research into muscular dystrophy; dyptheria immunisation; the efficacy of whooping cough vaccine; and treatment of typhoid fever by sulphathiazole and penicillin. Also in the early 1940s he pioneered the use of cathode ray oscilloscope in cardiography. Later he worked on a colour photographic process to indicate the degree of penetration of x rays by using colour photographic film; his innovations in this and numerous other areas of electro-physiology were published in his book Medical Electronics in 1953. While Medical Officer of health for West Glamorgan he carried out research into stammering in school-children, and together with Professor C E M Hansel he built a device for the treatment of stammering.

Short Stories

In 1982 Dr Donovan completed a book of short stories on his early life (1916 - 1923) in Ireland; based on his personal experiences, they were set against the social and political events that had a formative effect on his early years. My Ireland is an account of events witnessed by a young man at the time of the First World War.  Consisting of over 100 chapters, the book is an attempt by the author to make sense of the world around him as it descended into a conflict bordering on barbarism. Written sixty years after the events described and presented as empirical truth, the stories are told with great clarity. They entered the author’s mind at a difficult time in Irish history. You will find references to the stresses and strains of the first quarter of the last century - The Black and Tans, the rise of Nationalism, the IRA, Sinn Fein.

Publications

1. Stammering, with special reference to Glamorgan, Reprinted from Community Medicine No. 3303 Vol. 126 No. 21 pp. 283 to 286, Friday 29th, November 1971
2. Some aspects of Stammering, Reprinted from The Practitioner, Vol. 207, pp. 205 – 210, August 1971
3. Modern Phonocardiography, Reprinted from The Lancet, p. 401, September 11th 1948
4. Phono-Electrocardioscopy, Reprinted from The Lancet, p. 500, April 15th 1944
5. Colour in Electron Microscopy and Radiography, The Journal of Photographic Science, Vol. 4, 1956
6. Colour in Electron Microscopy, Reprinted from Nature, Vol 170, p. 1126, December 27th, 1952
7. Some Aspects of Radiology in War-time Germany, Reprinted from The British Journal of Radiology, June 1948
8. Modern Actinotherapy, Interim Supplement 38, British Encyclopaedia of Medical Practice, December 1945
9. A Survey of the Applications of Electronics in Medicine, Reprinted from British Medical Bulletin, Vol. 3, 1945, pp. 137 – 143
10. Some aspects of Cardiovascular Disease with Special Reference to Public Health, Reprinted from Public Health, May 1944
11. The Electron Microscope: Its Application to Medicine, Reprinted from Proceedings of The Royal Society of Medicine, October , 1944, Vol XXVII, No. 12, pp. 708 – 716 (Section of Physical Medicine, pp. 8 – 16
12. The Heart in Pregnancy: with Special Reference to Public Health, Reprinted from The Irish Journal of Medical Science, June , 1944, pp. 169–178
13. Biological Applications of the Electron Microscope, Reprinted from Nature, vol. 154, p. 356, September 1944
14. Some Observations on the Adaptation of the Double Beam Cathode-ray Oscilloscope to Biology and Medicine, Reprinted from Proceedings of The Royal Society of Medicine, September 1943
15. The Electrical Amplifying Stethoscope and Phono-Electrocardioscope, Reprinted from The Journal of the Institution, Vol. 90, Part III, No. 10, June 1943
16. Colour in Radiography, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, pp. 816 – 818.
17. Modern Methods for the Graphic Registration of the Heart Beat, Reprinted from The Irish Journal of Medical Science, November, 1943, pp. 583 to 591
18. The Value of Vitamin B1 in Diphtheria, Reprinted from The British Medical Journal, March 8th 1941, vol. i, p. 359

References

This article "George Edward Donovan" is from Simple English Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:George Edward Donovan.

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