David Henry Goodsall
Encyclopedia
David Henry Goodsall was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

 who is remembered for describing Goodsall's rule
Goodsall's rule
Goodsall's rule relates the external opening of an anal fistula to its internal opening. It states that the external opening situated behind the transverse anal line will open into the anal canal in the midline posteriorly...

.

Biography

David Goodsall was born in Gravesend, and educated at St. Ann's School. His father had decided to study medicine, but died while he was a student at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, as a result of a wound sustained while performing a post mortem examination
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...

. As a result, David Goodsall's fees at St. Bartholomews were waived, as his father's wound was inflicted by a member of staff, and he studied medicine there from 1865. He became house surgeon at St. Mark's Hospital
St. Mark's Hospital
St. Mark's Hospital is a hospital in the Harrow and Wembley border as well as the London Borough of Harrow and London Borough of Brent border in northwest London, UK. It is the only hospital in the world to specialise entirely in intestinal and colorectal medicine and is a national and...

 in 1870, a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons
Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons
Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons is a professional qualification to practise as a surgeon in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland...

 in 1872, and full surgeon in 1888. He developed an interest in rectal surgery, writing a chapter in Diseases of the Anus and Rectum in which Goodsall's rule is described. He is thought to have died of a myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

in 1906.
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