Sir James MacKenzie



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Biography
James Mackenzie was born in Scone, where his father was a farmer. After receiving his MD degree at the University of Edinburgh in 1882, Mackenzie practiced medicine for more than a quarter of a century in Burnley, in the borough of Burnley]] in Lancashire, England. While he was engaged in a busy practice, he made many original observations and had many scientific papers published.

At first he used a sphygmograph of Riva-Rocci for graphically recording a pulse; then he was first to make simultaneous records of the arterial and venous pulses with a device that he called a "polygraph," to evaluate the condition of the heart and to measure the AV interval. In 1890 he discovered premature ventricular contractions. Mackenzie also drew attention to the question of the heart's capacity for work, paving the way for the study of the energetics of the heart muscle.

In 1887 he married Frances Jackson and honeymooned in Italy. He had two daughters Dorothy (born in 1888) and Jean (in 1893. He left Burnley for London and set up as a consulting physician in November 1907. His reputation grew rapidly. His polygraph enabled Mackenzie to make original distinctions between harmless and dangerous types of pulse irregularities. He also demonstrated the efficacy of the Digitalis in the treatment of arrhythmias. In 1915 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and he was knighted.