An Epitome of the History of MedicinePark, Roswell
History
An Epitome of the History of Medicine
Park, Roswell
Medicine -- History
Alexander Monro, Sr. (1697-1767), of Edinburgh, was also eminent in both
anatomy and surgery, and contributed more than any other one man to
the success and reputation of the Scottish medical school. His sons,
Alexander and Donald, and his grandson, Alexander (3d), w'ere equally
celebrated in anatomy.
Charles White, of Manchester, is generally credited with having
performed, in 1768, the first subperiosteal resection of the head of the
humerus, although, as a matter of fact, this was not done until 1774,
and then by Bent, of Newcastle. He also performed resection of the
hip-joint upon the cadaver--another of the same name, Anthony White,
having done the operation on the living subject in 1721. He invented the
method of reducing dislocation of the{217} humerus with the foot in the
axilla,--a procedure that is ordinarily ascribed to Sir Astley Cooper;
also operations for false joint by the removal of the involved surfaces
of the bone.
It will be seen that the excision of the joints was peculiarly an
English method, the elbow-joint having been first excised in 1758,
by Wainman, and the knee-joint by Filkin, of Northwich. The man who
permanently attracted the attention of surgeons to these new operations
was Henry Park, a bold surgeon, who wrote in 1782. The merits of these
methods were then soon forgotten, however, and were revived in the
present century by Liston and Syme.
One of the best-known London surgeons was Percival Pott (1749-1787), who
became especially eminent through his{218} studies upon hernia, spinal
disease, and diseases of the bones and joints; his complete chirurgical
works appeared in London in 1771.
[Illustration: 0237]
William Hunter (1718-1783), of Scotch parentage, originally a
theological student, and a pupil of Cullen, went to London in 1741,
began to lecture on anatomy and surgery in 1746, and soon acquired a
great reputation as a surgeon, obstetrician, and anatomist. He achieved
enormous success in practice, and spent £100,000 upon his house,
library, and private collections. The latter now form the Hunterian
Museum in the University of Glasgow. His magnificent plates illustrating
the gravid uterus required the labors of twenty years and appeared in
1774.
[Illustration: 0239]
John Hunter (1728-1793), younger brother of William, enjoyed even
greater reputation than the latter. He was a pupil not only of his
brother, but also of Cheselden and Pott. Beginning the practice of
surgery in 1763, he became surgeon to St. George's Hospital in 1768,
and Surgeon-general of the English forces in 1790. So memorable were the
labors and services of this man that at the Royal College of Surgeons,
of London, there is given annually an "Hunterian Oration," intended in
some way to commemorate his labors or to draw some lesson from his life
and work, To do justice to John Hunter would require a volume, hence we
must at present dismiss the subject with this brief reference.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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