William Twining (military physician)

William Twining was born in 1790.[1] His father was Reverend William Twining of Nova Scotia.[1] His grandfather, Griffith Twining, had (in 1770) left his home in Clarbeston, Pembrokeshire, Wales to be a missionary abroad.[1] The family has origins in the town of Twining near Tewkesbury.[1] By common ancestry from the 1400s with the Twining family of Pershore, Twining was a distant relation to Richard Twining of Twinings and the East India Company tea trade.[1]

Twining began studying medicine at Guy's Hospital under Astley Cooper in 1808.[1] For two years, he worked as an anatomy demonstrator for Joshua Brookes.[1]

In 1821, he became personal surgeon to Edward Paget, Governor of Ceylon.[1] In 1824, he became the Assistant Surgeon to the Bengal Establishment in the East India Company.[1] While in that role, he also continued his term of military service through 1830.[1]

In 1835, Twining wrote what seems to be the first modern clinical description of kala azar, which he called "tropical sprue".[1][2] In his description, he said that it was "endemic cachexia of the tropical countries that are subject to paludal exhalations", and then listed characteristics which match contemporary understanding of the disease.[2]