Royal College of Surgeons

(See text below for some info of RCS)


300 Fellows of the RCS -

Correct way to address a member is - Mr, Mrs, Miss - NOT Dr - this system which applies only to surgeons not physicians has its origins in the 18th century when surgeons were barber surgeons - and did not have a medical degree or formal qualification
- pysicians held a University Medical degree.

When the RCS recieved it's Royal Charter (1800) the Royal College of Physicians insisted that candidates must have a medical degree first. Therefore, an aspiring surgeon must have a medical degree first and recieve the title of Dr - only then having obtained the diploma of Fellow of the RCS could he rivert to Mr, the title Mr only applied to Fellows not members with a diploma MRCS

John Abernethy FRS (3 April 1764 – 20 April 1831) was an English surgeon

1779 - apprenticed to Sir Charles Blicke (1745-1815) - surgeon at St Bartholomews Hospital

He attended anatomical lectures given by Sir Williamj Blizzard (1743-1835) at London Hospital and was employed to assist as demonstrator

He attended Percivall Potts surgical lectures at ST B's and also those given by John Hunter

1787 Pott's resigned as surgeon at St B's and was succeeded by Sir Charles Blicke and Abernethy was elected as assistant surgeon - post originally taken by Blicke

In his role as assistant surgeon he began to give lectures at his home in Bartholomew Close - they were so well attended that the governors of the hosital decided to build a theatre - 1790-1 - he thus became the founder of the Medical School at St B's

Remained assistant surgeon until 1815 when he became the principal surgeon

1814 he was appointed lecturer on anatomy to the Royal College of Surgeons

1809 - his Surgical Observations on the Constitutional Origin and Treatment of Local Diseases

'My Book' - always refered his patients to it - esp page 72

Taught that local diseases were freguently the result of disordered states of the digestive organs to be treated by purging and attention to diet

Disliked to be opposed in his lectures and was often rude to patients

Sir Astley Paston Cooper 1768-1841

Age 16 - sent to London and placed under Henry Cline (1750-1827) - surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital

Devoted to anatomy

1791 became joint lecturer with Cline in anatomy and surgery

1800 appointed surgeon at Guy's

1802 recieved Copley Medal fro two papers read before The Royal Society

1805 - elected Fellow of RS

1805 active part in the foundation of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London

1831 his profession annual income was 21,000

1831 appointed professor - Comparitive Anatomy to - Royal College of Surgeons

Origins - 14th C - foundation of the Guild of surgeons within the city of London

1540 - Union formalized between Worshipful Company of Barbers and the Guild of Surgeons - forming The Company of Barber Surgeons

1745 - Surgeons broke away to form - Company of Surgeons

1800 - granted Royal Charter

1797Company of Surgeons moved from the Surgeon's Hall at the Old Bailey to 41 Lincoln's Inn Fields (Photo)

Notes - eighteenth century medicine

Notes to follow up:

Dr James Blundell - 1791-1878 - obstetrician - performed the first successfully transfusion of blood to a female patient suffering a postpartum hemorrhage 1818

Blood transfusion - early attempts using animal blood - 17th France and England - Royal Society - before it was made illegal following deaths - probably from alergic reactions

1667 - London Arthur Coga - first to recieve blood transfusion from lamb's blood

1616 - William Harvey - discovered the circulation of blood - the heart was not the mystical centre of the body but a pump

Royal United Hospital

Royal United Hospital

A union of Bath Casualty hospital - 1788 - founded in response to the great number of serious injuries sustained by labourers employed on the building of Georgian Bath - located 38 Kings Mead Street

and Bath City Dispensary and Infirmary 1792 (developed from Bath pauer scheme - charity founded 1747 to provide medical treatment for the poor) - occupied a position of Lower Borough Walls

The two buildings merged in 1824 and moved to premises on Beau Street

Bellott's Almshouses

late 16th century built by Tmomas Bellott with money left to charity by Lord Burghly - on what is now Beau Street. They survived largely unchanged until the 19th c.. Street entrance led into quantrangle with ranges on all four sides. It was an enclosed world where residents were relatively undisturbed.

Bath Mineral Hospital

A - Queen's Ward

B - Aphothecarys' Room

C - Aphothecary's Shop

D - Matron's Room

E - Matron's Parlour

F - Surgeon's Room

G - Committee Room

H - Registers Room

I - Steward's Room

J - Princess Ward

K - Porter's Lodge

Bath Mineral Hospital

Common diagnosis - admissions book

- arthritis, paralysis, skin disease

Senior surgeon (feeling pulse) - Jeremiah Pierce - also Governor until 1761, born 1696, died 1765

Physician Dr William Oiver 1695-1764 - built house - now called Battlefields

Common complaints seen at the hospital - arthritis (osteoartritis), by end of 18th c large numbers of rheumatoid artritis - swellings

gout also popular

Condition treated - palsy with colic - Devonshire colic - later shown to be due to lead poisoning - affected poor people - those paid with cider - lead used in the cider presses

Honoray physician - Dr Rice Charleton published - analysis on paralytic cases admitted to the hospital - but failed to associate those cases with lead poisoning - this was left to the King's physician - Sir George Baker.

Immersian in thermal mineral water was consisered to accelerate lead excrection from the body.

Other considered that there was no proof that mineral water was any better than ordinary water and some stated - William Cullen that the poor should stay at home and take hot baths there.

Other sceptics - Smollet, William Saunders and William Heberden

Many people - chronic skin diseases came to Bath - many supposed they had leprosy - infact - scabies, psoriasis (leprosy had died out with the Tudors)

Symptoms - chronic rash - scaling, thickening

Patients with skin disease - 10%-15%

1752-64 - 241 admissions - 122 considered cured