addisonian

Addison, Joseph 1672-1719.   English essayist whose witty and elegant works appeared in The Tatler, founded by Richard Steele in 1709, and The Spectator, founded by Addison and Steele in 1711. Ad'di·so'ni·an (-sō'nē-ən) adj.

Main Entry: Ad·di·so·ni·an
Pronunciation: "ad-&-'sO-nE-&n, -ny&n
Function: adjective
: of, relating to, or affectedwith Addison's disease <Addisonian crisis> <Addisonian patient>
Addison, Thomas (1793–1860) English physician. Regarded as the father of modernendocrinology, Addison inaugurated the study of internal secretion and the endocrine glands. With John Morgan, he wrote the first book in English on the action of poisons in the living body, and he wasthe first to use static electricity in the treatment of spasmodic diseases. In 1849 he published a preliminary description of adrenocortical insufficiency. In an 1855 monograph he gave a full, classicdescription of this syndrome and an equally classic description of pernicious anemia. Shortly afterward, the French physician Armand Trousseau named these two diseases Addison's disease and addisoniananemia. Addison also produced original and significant works on tuberculosis, pneumonia, and skin disease.