John S. Chapman, MD: neglected pioneer in sarcoidosis.

ic pulmonary physician in the US state of Texas who made major contributions in the understanding of sarcoidosis and nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) disease. In our view, he has not received proper credit for his contributions to the field. Born in the small town of Sweetwater, he graduated from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas. He then entered the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, the oldest medical school in Texas, where he graduated in 1932. There he met and married Marianne Ryan, a nurse to whom he was happily married until her death in 1992 (1). Early on, Chapman entered medical practice with his father in his hometown. In 1943, he moved to Dallas and became an associate of two of the early thoracic surgeons in the area, Robert R. Shaw and Donald Paulson. Shaw, Paulson, and Chapman established the first 14-bed ward for tuberculosis at Baylor University Hospital. This was the initial hospital thoracic unit in Dallas. Good diet, bed rest, sunshine (now known to be valuable for its positive effects on vitamin D), were staples of therapy in that era. Therapeutic pneumothorax to collapse cavities and convert sputum to negative also was a major tool used for treatment.There was limited therapy of value beyond that. Effective tuberculosis chemotherapy had not yet become available (2). Soon after he came to Dallas, Chapman became a consultant to the tuberculosis control program of Dallas County, where there was then an enormous amount of tuberculosis in the white, Hispanic, and African-American populations. He also became affiliated with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, from its founding in 1943, the same year the Baylor University College of Medicine moved to Houston. Chapman rose to become a Professor of Medicine, and later Associate Dean for Postgraduate Education, and remained active with the school until his retirement in 1984.