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Caesar Henry Hawkins

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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CAESAR HENRY HAWKINS (1798-1884), British surgeon, son of the Rev. E. Hawkins and grandson of the Sir Caesar Hawkins (1711-1786), who was serjeant-surgeon to Kings George II. and George III., was born at Bisley, Gloucestershire, on the 19th of September 1798, was educated at Christ's Hospital, and entered St George's Hospital, London, in 1818. He was surgeon to the hospital from 1829 to 1861, and in 1862 was made serjeant-surgeon to Queen Victoria. He was president of the College of Surgeons in 1852, and again in 1861; and he delivered the Hunterian oration in 1849. His success in complex surgical cases gave him a great reputation. For long he was noted as the only surgeon who had succeeded in the operation of ovariotomy in a London hospital. This occurred in 1846, when anaesthetics were unknown. He did much to popularize colotomy. A successful operator, he nevertheless was attached to conservative surgery, and was always more anxious to teach his pupils how to save a limb than how to remove it. He reprinted his contributions to the medical journals in two volumes, 1874, the more valuable papers being on Tumours, Excision of the Ovarium, Hydrophobia and Snake-bites, Stricture of the Colon, and The Relative Claims of Sir Charles Bell and Magendie to the Discovery of the Functions of the Spinal Nerves. He died on the 10th of July 1884. His brother, Edward Hawkins (1789-1882), was the well-known provost of Oriel, Oxford, who played so great a part in the Tractarian movement.