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Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E001794 - Forbes-Ross, Frederick William (1867 - 1913)
Title:
Forbes-Ross, Frederick William (1867 - 1913)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E001794
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2011-12-21
Description:
Obituary for Forbes-Ross, Frederick William (1867 - 1913), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Forbes-Ross, Frederick William
Date of Birth:
December 1867
Place of Birth:
Jamaica
Date of Death:
18 September 1913
Place of Death:
London, UK
Occupation:
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS April 2nd 1903

FRCS December 10th 1903

MB CM 1889

DPH RCPS Eng 1898

LRCP Lond 1903

MD Edin (Hons) 1893
Details:
Born in December, 1867, in the island of Jamaica. He was of good Scottish family, the eldest son of Sir David Palmer Ross, CMG, Surgeon General of British Guiana. When a lad of 13, in weak health, he entered Dover College, but left it robust and well grounded in knowledge. He received his professional training at the University and Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, where he was Gold Medallist and Senior Prizeman in Anatomy. He was also Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. He continued his education at the University College and the Middlesex Hospitals, at Berlin, and in Paris. He was at one time Civil Surgeon to the Guards' Hospital, London, and Clinical Assistant at the Samaritan Hospital, the North London Hospital for Consumption, and the Children's Hospital, Paddington Green. He was also Surgeon to the Kensington General Hospital, whence he contributed several cases to the medical journals. Latterly he wrote a good deal in the lay press. He practised at 53 Harley Street, and died in New Cavendish Street, W, on September 18th, 1913. He was survived by Mrs Forbes-Ross, who was a daughter of Sir William Hooper, KCSI, at one time President of the Medical Board of the India Office, and by whom he had two children. A personal friend wrote an apologia which well describes the manner of man Forbes-Ross was, and accounts for his comparative failure in high professional circles:- "Dr Forbes-Ross's strong personality and extraordinary abilities must inevitably have brought him into the front rank of his profession had he not been cut off in the plenitude of his powers. The recognition which was already his due was delayed by the fact of his being a free-lance in his profession and far too outspoken in his criticism of medical red tape and his denunciations of hospital abuses and appointments. It also went against him that his name appeared so frequently and prominently in the lay press. This gave a false impression that he was a self-advertiser, but it was in reality rather due to his own overflowing vigour and the keenness of his interest in all current questions. His energy was great. He was always championing some cause or fighting some battle, discovering a new food or making an industrial invention, while at the same time satisfying the demands of a large practice. He had a large clientele, especially among American visitors and the theatrical profession. As a surgeon, though intensely nervous, as he himself admitted, before an operation, he was coolness and accuracy itself when he had once begun. His absolute confidence - one might almost call it cocksureness - gave the patient that entire belief in him which goes such a long way towards cure. Like most medical men he was lavish of time and skill on the poorest patients. When called in to operate in a case which had long been in local hands, he insisted - quite openly and above board - that a part of his fee should go to the local practitioner. His vehemence, and indeed his volubility, when his feelings were aroused were as pronounced as his abhorrence of shams and trickery and unfairness of all sorts was great…. He had a decided vein of superstition and what may be called uncanniness in his character." "There is no doubt," adds his friend, "that had he been successful in gaining a position in a good hospital he would have proved himself a valuable officer and loyal colleague, and one whose fertile brain and dexterous hands were calculated to advance both the science and the art of surgery." As it is, he was a prolific medical inventor. Among his inventions may be mentioned: a traveller for opening deep-seated abscesses, a pilot catheter for evacuating blood-clot from the bladder, a retainable bulldog crushing clamp for hemorrhage, and an inhaler for the continuous administration of oxygen. He also advocated a method of obviating post-operative pain by the administration all over and all around the site of the proposed manipulations of multiple injections of a sterilized solution of quinine and urea hydrochloride. Publications: *Intestinal Intoxication in Infants*, 1897. *Bacteriology of Infantile Diarrhoea, and its Treatment* (Thesis). "Observations on Certain Features exhibited by Cells (Leucocytes) and their Relation to Cancer." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1905, ii, 1101. "Two Cases illustrating Sciatica of Abdominal Origin - Laparotomy." - *Lancet*, 1906, I, 89. "Fulminating Appendicitis: Ligature-Temperature." - *Ibid.*, 1911, ii, 683. *Septic General Peritonitis in Children: Practical Points in its Surgery and Successful After-treatment*, 8vo, illustrated, London, n.d. Translation of Bruck's *Diseases of Nose, Mouth, Throat and Larynx.* A work on *Cancer*, published in the last months of his life. "A Case of Abdominal Suppuration with Large Inguinal Hernia." - *Trans. Liverpool Med. Inst.*, 1891.
Rights:
Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Collection:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format:
Obituary
Format:
Asset
Asset Path:
Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001700-E001799
Media Type:
Unknown