William Heberden's cases of anaphylactoid purpura.

Of William Heberden (1710-1801) Dr. Wells, in a letter to Lord Kenyon, wrote, 'Dr. Heberden, my Lord, stands in a manner alone in his profession. No other person, I believe, either in this or any other country, has ever exercised the art of medicine with the same dignity or has contributed so much to raise it in the estimation of mankind'. Heberden's modesty, integrity and scholarship earned him the admiration of his contemporaries and the affectionate respect of his biographers. In his writings he recorded accurate observations of disease in a simple lucid style. He contributed many papers to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and to the Medical Transactions of the College of Physicians. He is now remembered particularly for his descriptions of chicken pox, angina pectoris and the nodes in osteo-arthritis. His 'Commentaries on the History and Cure of Diseases' was published by his son William Heberden in 1802, the year after his death, first in Latin and later in English. The Commentaries were built up gradually from notes taken from day to day during his active professional life. They were revised each month and expanded or modified until 1782, after which year no significant alteration was made. Chapter 78 of the Commentaries, entitled 'Purpureae Maculae', includes two brief case reports.