Background
Nathan Edwin Brill was born on January 13, 1859 in the city of New York where he spent his entire life. He was the son of Simon Brill, a native of Lichtenfeld, Germany, and Adelheid Frankenthal, who was born in Fuerth, Germany.
Nathan Edwin Brill was born on January 13, 1859 in the city of New York where he spent his entire life. He was the son of Simon Brill, a native of Lichtenfeld, Germany, and Adelheid Frankenthal, who was born in Fuerth, Germany.
His early education was received in the public schools of New York City and at the College of the City of New York where Nathan Brill received his A. B. degree in 1877, at the age of seventeen, and his M. A. in 1883.
He graduated in medicine in 1880 from the medical department of New York University. During his last year as a medical student, and the first year after his graduation he served as an interne in Bellevue Hospital.
After graduating from the medical department of New York University, Nathan Brill was appointed attending physician to Mt. Sinai Hospital in 1893, and for the succeeding thirty years he served that institution faithfully and assiduously, taking a great personal interest in his patients and building up his professional experience, which eventually led to his recognition as one of the leading diagnosticians of his day.
As Dr. Sachs remarks in his brief biography, he was of the opinion that the actual study of the patient at the bedside was of greater importance than any other procedure in practical medicine.
Beginning in 1910, he published a series of articles concerning a febrile disease of infectious origin, which was of fairly frequent occurrence in New York City.
His description of this condition was so clear-cut that others readily recognized it, and it very quickly became known as Brill's Disease. Subsequently, largely through the efforts of the late Dr. Gedide A. Friedman, it was shown that it was a modified form of typhus fever and that cases were not confined to New York City but had appeared in other cities along the Atlantic seaboard.
Brill was one of the first to introduce into this country the operation of splenectomy for thrombocytopenic purpura. He was the first, with his colleague, Dr. Mandelbaum, to put on a firm footing the pathological anatomy and clinical features of the curious and rare disease first described by the French physician, Gaucher. Brill also did valuable work in other fields, notably in connection with diseases of the blood-forming organs.
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He was primarily a clinician, though he by no means disparaged the value of laboratory work. Throughout his life Brill was interested not only in clinical medicine but in public health as well. He also played his part in the administrative aspects of hospital work and in the work of medical institutions, notably the New York Academy of Medicine.
Brill was a large man, who gave the impression of strength and vitality. One of his biographers describes his nature as diffident, almost repellent. To the writer he always appeared as a genial, charming gentleman, who held his opinions with decided tenacity and was always ready to fight for them.
Even after he developed the first signs of the disease which ultimately destroyed him, and had had half his larynx removed, he had the courage to continue to attend medical meetings and to take part in discussions in spite of the fact that he was only able to talk in a whisper. When the growth in his larynx recurred and ultimately rendered him entirely voiceless he accepted his lot with fortitude.
Brill was married, on June 8, 1899, to Elsa M. Josephthal, of New York.
