BLACKALL,JOHN (1771-1860) - FAILURE TO SEE THE OBVIOUS IN DROPSICAL PATIENTS WITH COAGULABLE URINE

Despite his success in publishing a book which was widely read and whi ch drew attention to the fact that some cases of dropsy are associated with coagulable urine, John Blackall failed to make the link between this phenomenon and disease of the kidneys. Thus, to Richard Bright mu st go the credit for providing the critical understanding of the pheno menon. The single most probable reason for Bright's success and Blacka ll's failure was that Bright carried out post mortem examinations of a lmost all of his patients. In addition, Bright was ruthlessly systemat ic in documenting his autopsy findings, and not least was the fact tha t he possessed the rare talent of being objective in looking at his da ta, without being influenced by the preconceptions of the times.