Daniel Thomas Quigley (27 June 1876 – 2 October 1968) was an American physician, surgeon and writer.

Biography

Quigley was born in

Edgerton, Wisconsin Edgerton is a city in Rock and Dane counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 5,945 at the 2020 census, of which 5,799 were in Rock County and 146 were in Dane County. Edgerton was historically known as "Tobacco City U.S.A." ...

.Wakeley, Arthur Cooper. (1917)
''Omaha: The Gate City, and Douglas County, Nebraska: Volume 2''
Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company. pp. 396-399 His father was Thomas Barlett Quigley. In 1902, he obtained his M.D. from

Rush Medical College Rush Medical College is the medical school of Rush University, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Established in 1837, it is affiliated with Rush University Medical Center, and John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County. ...

. He studied at Englewood Hospital under surgeon

John Benjamin Murphy John Benjamin Murphy, born John Murphy (December 21, 1857 – August 11, 1916) was an American physician and abdominal surgeon noted for advocating early surgical intervention in appendicitis appendectomy, and several eponyms: Murphy’s button, ...

. He worked in

North Platte, Nebraska North Platte is a city in and the county seat of Lincoln County, Nebraska, United States. It is located in the west-central part of the state, along Interstate 80, at the confluence of the North and South Platte Rivers forming the Platte River. ...

(1903–1913). He married Helen Seyferth on June 15, 1904. They had one son Thomas Bartlett Quigley born May 24, 1908. Quigley did postgraduate work (1913–1914) in London, Vienna and Paris. He was a founder of the

American College of Surgeons The American College of Surgeons (ACS) is a professional medical association for surgeons and surgical team members, founded in 1913. It claims more than 90,000 members in 144 countries. History The ACS was founded in 1913 as an outgrowth of ...

. In 1916, he helped the founding of the

American Radium Society The American Radium Society is a medical association devoted to the study and treatment of cancer. It was founded in 1916. The Society's original mission was to further "the scientific study of radium in relation to its physical properties and the ...

. In 1917, he opened the Radium Hospital in Omaha. He was a surgical pathologist in charge of radium therapy at

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

College of Medicine until 1931. He practiced radiotherapy at his office in the Omaha Medical Arts Building until 1966. He retired at the age of 90 due to generalized arteriosclerosis. Quigley was a member of the

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is an American professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. This medical association was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was 271,660 ...

and the

Radium

Quigley was one of the first physicians to use

radium Radium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in alkaline earth metal, group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, ...

to treat

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

in the United States. In 1922, he stated "the position of radium and x-ray in regard to cancer is just as well established and proven as is the position of quinine in malaria or salvarsan in syphilis and the only person who rejects such evidence is the person who does not want to know the truth." In 1929, Quigley authored ''The Conquest of Cancer by Radium and Other Methods''. It was positively reviewed in the ''

Journal of the American Medical Association ''JAMA'' (''The Journal of the American Medical Association'') is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 48 times a year by the American Medical Association. It publishes original research, reviews, and editorials covering all aspects of ...

'' but the reviewer noted that a weakness of the book was that it did not describe the methods of how the radium was used in treatment. Another reviewer noticed this, commenting "in no case is filtration mentioned and even the manner of application and the form in which the radium was used, are often omitted". It was negatively reviewed in the ''

Annals of Internal Medicine ''Annals of Internal Medicine'' is an academic medical journal published by the American College of Physicians (ACP). It is one of the most widely cited and influential specialty medical journals in the world. ''Annals'' publishes content releva ...

'' which described it as "an extraordinary collection of pathological ignorance and misconceptions".

Nutrition

Quigley was also an advocate of nutritional therapy to treat cancer and recommended that people eat a vitamin-rich diet to prevent disease. In his book ''Notes and Vitamins and Diet'' (1933), Quigley reported results from his and others clinical work which concluded that consumption of

processed food Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing takes many forms, from grinding grain into raw flour, home cooking, and complex industrial methods used in the mak ...

s like

cake Cake is a flour confection usually made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elabor ...

candy Candy, alternatively called sweets or lollies, is a Confectionery, confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, also called ''sugar confectionery'', encompasses any sweet confection, including chocolate, chewing gum ...

cookie A cookie is a sweet biscuit with high sugar and fat content. Cookie dough is softer than that used for other types of biscuit, and they are cooked longer at lower temperatures. The dough typically contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of ...

sweets Candy, alternatively called sweets or lollies, is a confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, also called ''sugar confectionery'', encompasses any sweet confection, including chocolate, chewing gum, and sugar can ...

white bread White bread typically refers to breads made from wheat flour from which the bran and the germ layers have been removed from the whole wheatberry as part of the flour grinding or milling process, producing a light-colored flour. Nutrition Wh ...

and

white flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...

is responsible for the high incidence of degenerative diseases in the United States.

Selected publications

''Radiotherapy in Cancer''
(1921)
''Some Observations on Breast Cancer''
(1925) *''The Conquest of Cancer by Radium and Other Methods'' (1929)
''Notes on Vitamins and Diets''
(1933) *''The National Malnutrition'' (1950)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quigley, Daniel Thomas 1876 births 1968 deaths 20th-century American physicians American nutritionists American radiologists American surgeons American cancer researchers Physicians from Wisconsin Rush Medical College alumni University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni People from Edgerton, Wisconsin