Du er her: Hjem >> MedHist >> Biografier >> Ruffer-bio.php

Marc Armand Ruffer

Paleopatologiens fader

Født i Lyon, Frankrig i 1859. Død på Middelhavet på vej tilbage fra Grækenland til Egypten, ca. 2. maj 1917, da skibet blev torpederet. Marc Armand Ruffer blev født ind i en velhavende bankier-familien som søn af Baron Jacques Ruffer og en tysk mor. Hans tidlige uddannelse foregik i Frankrig og Tyskland, inden han kom til England, hvor han først tog en humanistisk grad i Oxford, inden han studerede medicin i London. Under sine studier tilbragte han tid ved Pasteur Instituttet i Paris, mens Pasteur og Metchnikoff stadige var aktive. I forbindelser med studier af difteri-baccillen ved The British Institute of Preventive Medicine blev Ruffer selv ramt af sygdommen. Han tog sin afsked og rejste til Egypten for at rekonvalesere. Inden længe blev han professor i bakteriologi ved Universitetet i Cairo, og her påbegyndte han de studier af egyptiske mumier, som gav ham sit ry for eftertiden. Marc Armand Ruffer benyttede som den første termen paleopatologi, som han definerede som det videnskabelige studium af sygdomme, som lader sig spore i levn af mennesker og dyr fra tidligere tider.

[...] Ruffer made the first important observations and devised a softening fluid for the rehydration of brittle mummy tissues necessary before they can be processed for microtome sectioning. Wilson (1927) used a similar fluid. A modification of this fluid is still widely used for similar palaeohistological purposes (Sandison, 1955, Ryder, 1958, Rowling, 1961) and has been used in the investigation of modern mummified forensic medical material (Evans 1961).

Perhaps the most important was his discovery of the calcified eggs of Schistosoma haematobium bilharzia in the straight tubules of the kidneys of two twentieth dynasty Egyptian mummies (Ruffer, 1910b). This observation is of cardinal importance since it extends back the history of schistosomiasis for three millenia and substantiates the statements in the great medical papyri from ancient Egypt that haematuria was common. I suppose this might be regarded as the foundation of a new science of palaeoparasitology; this science has recently been extended by qualitative and quantitative assessments of helminth ova astonishingly well preserved in medieval cesspits and latrine deposits (Pike, in press).

A further paper of fundamental importance concerns the histological study of arterial lesions in Egyptian mummies (Ruffer, 191lb). This demonstrated unequivocally the presence of atheromatous degenerative arterial disease in bodies from the eighteenth dynasty of the New Kingdom until the Coptic Christian period. Ruffer suspected, but was unable to demonstrate satisfactorily, hypertensive arteriosclerosis but the latter has since been shown by Sandison (1962) who also confirmed Ruffer's findings of atheroma and calcification.

In 1911 Ruffer published an interesting, well-illustrated and somewhat unusual paper, based on literary and artistic sources, concerning dwarfs and other deformed persons in ancient Egypt (Ruffer, 1911c). He showed clearly that Egyptologists had been in error when they assumed that ancient Egyptian dwarfs were African pygmies: they were in fact achondroplastics and Ruffer clearly established that achondroplasia has occurred over a period of five millenia.

A second paper similarly based on literary and artistic sources concerns consanguineous marriage in the royal families of the New Kingdom and Ptolemaic Egypt (Ruffer, 1919). This study clearly shows that such consanguineous marriages (provided that the stock is good) need not necessarily lead to ill-effects. In this paper there are statements of minor importance which will not be universally acceptable. For example, Ruffer in his preamble states that II Samuel 13, evidences permissive marriage between Hebrew half-brother and sister, whereas the relevant episode is the incestuous rape of Tamar by her half-brother Amnon. Further Ruffer does not make it clear that incestuous marriage among the common people in Egypt probably did not occur in Pharaonic times although it certainly did in the Hellenistic period. This valuable paper is still quoted in modern discussions on consanguineous marriage (Bourne, 1963).

I 1910 obduktion mumien Nesperenhep, præst af Amon, der havde levet i 1000 f.Kr.. AD, fandt han en Pott's sygdom med psoas absces, der viser, at tuberkulose var til stede i det gamle Egypten. Han udførte mange obduktioner af mumier, der er beskrevet tilfælde af dværgvækst og var den første til at sprede ordet "Palaeopathologie

I 1910 udførte han obduktion af mumien Nesperenhep, præst af Amon, der havde levet i 1000 f.Kr.. AD. Ud over specifikke deformationer af ryggen, fandt han et hulrum dannet af en byld i psoas muskel, klart svarer til Pott's sygdom, en form for TB op på rygsøjlen. Det var uigendrivelige beviser for, at denne sygdom, der allerede udøvede kaos i det gamle Egypten.

Referencer

• A.T. Sandison: "Sir Marc Armand Ruffer (1859-1917) pioneer of palaeopathology."
  Medical History 11(2), 1967: 150–156.

• Sir Marc Armand Ruffer: Studies in the Palaeopathology of Egypt
  Edited by Roy L. Moodie. The University of Chicago press; 1st.ed., 1921
  Også som sort/hvid pdf.

• Anmeldelse af Studies in the Palaeopathology of Egypt
  J Anat. 56(Pt 2) 1922: 160.

• Marc Armand Ruffer & Grafton Elliot Smith (1910): Pott'sche Krankheit an einer ägyptischen Mumie aus der Zeit der 21. Dynastie (um 1000 v. Chr.)
  Zur historischen Biologie der Krankheitserreger, 3. Heft, Geissen, 1910

• Marc Armand Ruffer (1910b): Note on the presence of "Bilharzia haematobia" in Egyptian mummies of the Twentieth Dynasty (1250-1000 B.C.)
  British Medical Journal, 1 1910: 16.
  Se også: H. Kloos & R. David: The Paleoepidemiology of Schistosomiasis in Ancient Egypt
  Human Ecology Review, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2002: 14-25.

• Marc Armand Ruffer (1911b): On arterial lesions found in Egyptian mumies (1580 B.C.-525 A.D.)
  J. Path. Bact., 15 1911: 453-462.

• Marc Armand Ruffer (1911c): On dwarfs and other deformed persons in Ancient Egypt
  Bull, Soc. Archeol. Alex. 13 1911: 1-17.
  Se også: Chahira Kozma: Dwarfs in Ancient Egypt
  American Journal of Medical Genetics 140A, 2006: 303–311.

• Marc Armand Ruffer (1919): On the Physical Effects of Consanguineous Marriages in the Royal Families of Ancient Egypt.
  Proc R Soc Med. 12 (Suppl) 1919: 145-190.