BJOG Editor-in-Chief number 8: James Young 1943-1963.

Abstract

James Young was born in Edinburgh on 24 April 1883 and graduated MB ChB with first class honours from Edinburgh University in 1905. In 1910 he was awarded the gold medal for his MD thesis Reproduction of the Human Female, later published as a book. He self-funded cancer research, suggesting that a form of ‘pleomorphic bacterium’ isolated from 34 human cancers might be carcinogenic; it would be more than 50 years before the herpes virus was suggested as the cause of cervical cancer. However, he found more acceptance of his research into the causes of eclampsia, considered to be ‘a poison or toxin’ released by infarctions in the placenta (hence the term ‘pre-eclamptic toxaemia’). His comprehensive review of the topic was published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1914, following which his studies were interrupted by involvement in military campaigns in Gallipoli, Egypt, Palestine and France, about which he wrote a book, With the 52nd division in three continents. He reached the rank of lieutenant colonel, was twice mentioned in dispatches and in 1919 was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. He developed his clinical practice in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and the Simpson Memorial Maternity Hospital. His 1929 paper in the British Medical Journal highlighted the recurrence of pre-eclampsia in successive pregnancies; he concluded that ‘in view of the large risk of recurrence the need for antenatal supervision from an early stage in the event of the subsequent pregnancy should be clearly explained to the patient’. More controversially, he opined that ‘toxaemia in two or more pregnancies is an indication for the prevention of any further pregnancy’. In 1934 he was elected to a professorship in the University of London at the newly created British Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith (later to become the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology), subsequently concentrating on training, teaching and writing. In 1937 he was appointed assistant editor of our Journal, becoming joint Editor in 1943 and Editor-in-Chief from 1946 until 1963 – a record for editorial longevity. His Textbook of Gynaecology ran to 11 editions. His administrative responsibilities included being Governor of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the National Birthday Trust. He was elected honorary Fellow of the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a corresponding Fellow of the German Gynaecological Society. He piloted the Journal through its acquisition by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1950 (following which, for the first time, the editor was paid a salary), was widely read and wrote in a literary style that contrasts with the minimalist orthodoxy of modern scientific writing. He regarded fundamental experimental investigations as ‘gold compared with the trash of case records…while an intensive study of ten cases may be rewarding, the study of 1000 cases of the same condition is in its nature likely to be perfunctory and sterile’. A strict but kindly man, he enjoyed sharing music with his wife, daughter, stepdaughter and two stepsons. He died in the year that he demitted office as Editor. None declared. Completed disclosure of interests form available to view online as supporting information. Image is available online as supporting information to the article.