The annual oration of the Hunterian Society, for 1892 / by Charters J. Symonds.

  • Symonds, Charters James, 1852-1932.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The annual oration of the Hunterian Society, for 1892 / by Charters J. Symonds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    and troubles, which continued for over 300 years. So late as 1632 the physicians obtained an order of Council, that no surgeon should trepan, cut for stone, or perform any large operation unless a physician were present, and yet they declined to examine in surgery. This edict was withdrawn in three years.® Even after the first separation of the surgeons from the barbers, in 1744, the surgeon was still not allowed to prescribe internal remedies. And in Hunter’s time, the name of the physician appeared on the hed-letter when more than a black draught was ordered. Abernethy did much to remove all this, and so did Cheselden. It was on the part of the surgeons an earnest of their desire to improve the position of their art at any sacrifice, that they took with them only the Arris and Gale bequests, leaving the barbers the hall and plate. Pott and Hunter were appointed the Masters in Anatomy at the new Hall of the Surgeons, in the Old Bailey, in 1753. Even in some of the early Hunterian orations—and the first was delivered in 1814—several apologetic remarks occur, indicating that the surgeon, in claiming an equal position for his branch, was careful to avoid shghting the physician. The preceding sketch shows that it was only just before Hunter’s time that the surgeons were placed on an independent basis. It was not till 1800 that the Charter constituting the Company into a Eoyal College was granted. Between Wiseman (the first surgical writer of any impor- tance), who flourished about 1660, and Cheselden, one of the teachers of Hunter, no author of any note had appeared. Cheselden wrote a good work on anatomy, and was celebrated for the improvements he introduced into the operation for stone. He took an active interest in the formation of the Company of Surgeons in 1744, and was its first Master. Hunter obtained his first lessons in surgery at Chelsea Hospital, in 1750, under Cheselden, who continued to operate there after leaving St. Thomas’s Hospital. He died in 1752. A pupil of Cheselden was Samuel Sharp, who succeeded his preceptor^ as Lecturer at St. Thomas’s in 1730, and was from 1733 to 1757 Surgeon to Guy’s Hospital. Ho published in 1739, “A Treatise ® Riviugton, p. 46.