Louis Westenra Sambon

Louis Westenra Sambon
Born	Luigi Westenra Sambon (1867-11-07)7 November 1867 Milan, Italy
Died	30 August 1931(1931-08-30) (aged 63) Paris, France
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Naples Federico II
Known for	Schistosoma mansoni Etiology of trypanosomiasis, cancer and pellagra
Scientific career
Fields	Medicine, parasitology
Institutions	Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Author abbrev. (zoology)	Sambon

Louis Westenra Sambon (original first name Luigi, 7 November 1867 – 30 August 1931^[1]) was an Italian-English physician who played important roles in understanding the causes (etiology) of diseases. He described many pathogenic protozoans, insects, and helminths including the name Schistosoma mansoni for a blood fluke.^[2] He was an authority on the classification of parasitic tongue worms called Pentastomida (Linguatulida),^[3] and one of the genus Sambonia is named after him.

Sambon was born in Milan, Italy, and obtained an M.D. from the University of Naples Federico II. He moved to England to work at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He originated theories on the nature of diseases such as sleeping sickness, malaria, pellagra, and cancer.

Biography

Sambon was born in Milan to an Italian father and an English mother.

He was elected member of Société de Médecine Tropicale of Paris, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and an honorary Fellow of the Manila Medical Society. In 1908, he was vice president of the Section of Tropical Disease of the British Medical Association.

He died in Paris on 30 August 1931.^[6]

Contributions

Acclimatisation

In one of his first technical speeches at the

Pellagra was epidemic in Italy since the late 18th century throughout the 19th century, and was spreading to America. By the late 19th century it was generally believed that it was due to maize consumption. An Italian scientist Cesare Lombroso postulated that the disease was due to the toxin in the maize.^[14] Sambon introduced the parasitic theory at the meeting of the British Medical Association in 1905, in which he stated that pellagra was an infectious disease something like kala-azar (caused by a protozoan Leishmania) in India.^[15] He was assigned to investigate pellagra in Italy for three months in 1910. His report was published in The Journal of the London School of Tropical Medicine in 1910.^[7] Sambon concluded that pellagra was caused probably by a protozoan parasite (such as a trypanosome) and was transmitted by a specific insect (such as Simulium, which includes buffalo gnats, sand flies, and black flies).^[16] According to Sambon, pellagra is:

1. not caused by maize because it is present in countries where maize is absent;
2. a parasitic disease because it has the characteristic symptoms of parasitic infections; and
3. an insect-borne disease because it is most abundant in rural areas where insects (particularly Simulium reptans) are prevalent.

Sambon's theory caused impediment to the treatment of pellagra when there was an epidemic in the early 1900s in America, because his theory was largely taken as an authority.

Sambon proposed the parasitic theory of cancer. According to him, cancer is a kind of parasite that lives inside the body and progressively invade other tissues. His theory was supported by the discovery of a cancer-causing roundworm (Gongylonema neoplasticum) by a Danish physician Johannes Fibiger in 1907. [Fibiger was given the 1926 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, but his discovery was later proved wrong.^[21]] Sambon further introduced terms such as "cancer houses" and "cancer streets" to describe specific locations where cancers originate and are more prevalent.^[6]

References