Thomas Kennedy Dalziel

Thomas Kennedy Dalziel, known as T Kennedy Dalziel (1861 – 10 February 1924), was a Scottish surgeon and pathologist who specialised particularly in abdominal surgery. Dalziel was most notable for being considered the best technical surgeon at the time in western Scotland. He was also particularly notable for the discovery of a disease called chronic interstitial enteritis in 1913, that later became known as Crohn's disease.

Life Dalziel took his early schooling in Dumfries before matriculating at the University of Edinburgh Medical School and subsequently graduated in 1883 with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery. After visiting Berlin to gain experience in experimental surgery and Vienna for pathology, Dalziel returned to Glasgow to start his post clinical training with a post as a house surgeon at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary with the noted neurologist William Macewen and that he described in his classic paper, Chronic Interstitial Enteritis. In his paper Dalziel described nine patients in which he observed eosinophils, giant cells and granulomas with no infectious agents. The first patient was a professional colleague and upon operating Dalziel found that the whole intestine was chronically inflamed and was unable to restore function with the patient dying. The second patient was seen several years later in Paisley and was more acute and this patient also died. The third patient was called Mrs T by Dalziel and was seen in 1905. Dalzeil operated along with Samson Gemmell and removed two feet of the jejunum that was found to be infected.

Awards and honours For his services during World War I to the Advisory Council of the Royal Army Medical Corps, Dalziel was knighted by King George V.