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John Abernethy (Surgeon)

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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JOHN ABERNETHY (1764-1831), English surgeon, grandson of John Abernethy (see above), was born in London on the 3rd of April 1764. His father was a London merchant. Educated at Wolverhampton grammar school, he was apprenticed in 1779 to Sir Charles Blicke (1745-1815), surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He attended the anatomical lectures of Sir William Blizard (1743-1835) at the London Hospital, and was early employed to assist as "demonstrator"; he also attended Percival Pott's surgical lectures at St Bartholomew's Hospital, as well as the lectures of John Hunter. On Pott's resignation of the office of surgeon of St Bartholomew's, Sir Charles Blicke, who was assistant-surgeon, succeeded him, and Abernethy was elected assistant-surgeon in 1787. In this capacity he began to give lectures at his house in Bartholomew Close, which were so well attended that the governors of the hospital built a regular theatre (1790-1791), and Abernethy thus became the founder of the distinguished school of St Bartholomew's. He held the office of assistant-surgeon of the hospital for the long period of twenty-eight years, till, in 1815, he was elected principal surgeon. He had before that time been appointed lecturer in anatomy to the Royal College of Surgeons (1814). Abernethy was not a great operator, though his name is associated with the treatment of aneurism by ligature of the external iliac artery. His Surgical Observations on the Constitutional Origin and Treatment of Local Diseases (1809) - known as "My Book," from the great frequency with which he referred his patients to it, and to page 72 of it in particular, under that name - was one of the earliest popular works on medical science.

He taught that local diseases were frequently the results of disordered states of the digestive organs, and were to be treated by purging and attention to diet. As a lecturer he was exceedingly attractive, and his success in teaching was largely attributable to the persuasiveness with which he enunciated his views. It has been said, however, that the influence he exerted on those who attended his lectures was not beneficial in this respect, that his opinions were delivered so dogmatically, and all who differed from him were disparaged and denounced so contemptuously, as to repress instead of stimulating inquiry. The celebrity he attained in his practice was due not only to his great professional skill, but also in part to the singularity of his manners. He used great plainness of speech in his intercourse with his patients, treating them often brusquely and sometimes even rudely. In the circle of his family and friends he was courteous and affectionate; and in all his dealings he was strictly just and honourable. He resigned his position at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1827, and died at his residence at Enfield on the 10th of April 1831.

A collected edition of his works was published in 1830. A biography, Memoirs of John Abernethy, by George Macilwain, appeared in 1853.