HOLLAND, SIR HENRY, BART. (1788-1873), English physician and author, was
born at Knutsford, Cheshire, on the 27th of October 1788. His maternal
grandmother was the sister of Josiah Wedgwood, whose grandson was
Charles Darwin; and his paternal aunt was the mother of Mrs Gaskell.
After spending some years at a private school at Knutsford, he was sent
to a school at Newcastle-on-Tyne, whence after four years he was
transferred to Dr J. P. Estlin's school near Bristol. There he at once
took the position of head boy, in succession to John Cam Hobhouse,
afterwards Lord Broughton, an honour which required to be maintained by
physical prowess. On leaving school he became articled clerk to a
mercantile firm in Liverpool, but, as the privilege was reserved to him
of passing two sessions at Glasgow university, he at the close of his
second session sought relief from his articles, and in 1806 began the
study of medicine in the university of Edinburgh, where he graduated in
1811. After several years spent in foreign travel, he began practice in
1816 as a physician in London--according to his own statement, "with a
fair augury of success speedily and completely fulfilled." This
"success," he adds, "was materially aided by visits for four successive
years to Spa, at the close of that which is called the London season."
It must also, however, be in a great degree attributed to his happy
temperament and his gifts as a conversationalist--qualities the
influence of which, in the majority of cases belonging to his class of
practice, is often of more importance than direct medical treatment. In
1816 he was elected F.R.S., and in 1828 F.R.C.S. He became physician in
ordinary to Prince Albert in 1840, and was appointed in 1852 physician
in ordinary to the queen. In April 1853 he was created a baronet. He was
also a D.C.L. of Oxford and a member of the principal learned societies
of Europe. He was twice married, his second wife being a daughter of
Sydney Smith, a lady of considerable literary talent, who published a
biography of her father. Sir Henry Holland at an early period of his
practice resolved to devote to his professional duties no more of his
time than was necessary to secure an income of L5000 a year, and also to
spend two months of every year solely in foreign travel. By the former
resolution he secured leisure for a wide acquaintance with general
literature, and for a more than superficial cultivation of several
branches of science; and the latter enabled him, besides visiting, "and
most of them repeatedly, every country of Europe," to make extensive
tours in the other three continents, journeying often to places little
frequented by European travellers. As, moreover, he procured an
introduction to nearly all the eminent personages in his line of travel,
and knew many of them in his capacity of physician, his acquaintance
with "men and cities" was of a species without a parallel. The _London
Medical Record_, in noticing his death, which took place on his
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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