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Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E003093 - Rickards, Edwin (1840 - 1908)
Title:
Rickards, Edwin (1840 - 1908)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E003093
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2012-11-07
Description:
Obituary for Rickards, Edwin (1840 - 1908), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Rickards, Edwin
Date of Birth:
1840
Date of Death:
11 June 1908
Place of Death:
Edgbaston
Occupation:
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS June 9th 1870

FRCS June 9th 1870

BA Oxon 1864

MA 1872

BM 1872

MRCP Lond 1874

FRCP 1886

LSA 1870

JP for the County of Warwickshire
Details:
The fourth and youngest son of the Rev Thomas Ascough Rickards, Vicar of Cosby, Leicestershire, where he was born in 1840. He matriculated at St John's College, Oxford, on July 1st, 1861, and graduated with a pass degree in Arts in 1864. He received his professional training at University College Hospital, in due course becoming House Surgeon under Sir John Eric Erichsen (qv). In 1870 he was appointed Resident Pathologist to the General Hospital, Birmingham. After acting as Pathologist, he was for a short time Resident Medical Officer. In 1874 he was elected Physician and filled the office for the long term of thirty years, being the last Physician appointed before the creation of the assistant staff appointments. A testimonial was presented to him on his retirement in 1904, which included an illuminated address, subscribed for by members of the Board, by the staff, and by Governors of the Hospital, when he became Consulting Physician. At the same time an etched portrait, drawn by H Macbeth-Raeburn, was presented to the Hospital, a replica being given to Mrs Rickards. From 1883-1903 he was one of the Consulting Physicians to the Birmingham General Dispensary, and was also Physician to the General Institution for the Blind for the same period. He was for a short time a systematic lecturer in the Medical School, and was a popular, painstaking, and conscientious clinical teacher. He had a wide knowledge of human nature and a quaint gift of original humour, which made his lectures attractive. The work of the new Birmingham University interested him greatly, and he gave a substantial sum of money to build and equip the first pathological laboratory. At the time of his death he had been for some years on the Council of the University and had filled various offices in local medical societies, being President in 1880 (for many years Treasurer) of the Birmingham Branch of the British Medical Association; President of the Midland Medical Association, of the Medical Institute (1902-1904), and of the Birmingham Benevolent Society. Although he took little part in the debates at these medical societies, and was usually a silent listener, he could on occasion show that he was neither an unmindful nor an inattentive observer of the progress of medical science, and that he had pondered with profit on passing events. In 1893, when President of the local Branch of the British Medical Association, he chose for the subject of his address, "The Treatment of Infectious Diseases by Vaccine", and showed in it an appreciation of the possibilities, then latent, in this method, and a deep and wide acquaintance with the hopes and aspirations of those pathologists who then stood as pioneers of progress. It must be remembered that at this time the profession was suffering from a reaction, and many were disposed to discredit the possibility of the cure of diseases by substances derived from bacterial cultures, in consequence of the disappointments experienced by the failure of Koch's tuberculin to fulfil the exaggerated promises entertained respecting it. He wrote on this occasion: "The apparent failure of any one method of dealing with a particular infectious disease by a vaccine through imperfection of detail must not shake our confidence in bacteriological science generally. I am free to admit that we are far from home in this matter, but I believe the road is right, and if ever we are to have a definite treatment for the infectious diseases it will be in the direction of vaccines, germicides, or antitoxins, and in respect to these we must look for light from the laboratory." In the concluding sentences he appealed for State help in order to allow of bacteriology undertaking those important national investigations which, as he rightly said, "become every day of more pressing necessity". He was a cultured gentleman, exceedingly hospitable and much beloved by his friends, and at his death was referred to by the Birmingham correspondent of the *Lancet* as one "of a generation which is all too rapidly passing away and taking with it the open, generous, loyal, and friendly spirit which characterized it" and was of great benefit to Birmingham. He practised at 54 Newhall Street, and died after a short illness at Ellerslie, Edgbaston, on June 11th, 1908. He was buried on June 15th in the churchyard of Northfield Parish Church, many medical men and friends being present. He was survived by his widow, whom he had married when he was well advanced in years. This lady was the daughter of John Archer (qv), of Birmingham. Publications: "Six Cardiac and Vascular Cases." - *Brit Med Jour*, 1881, i, 916. "Fatty Transformation of the Kidney." - *Ibid*, 1883, ii, 2. "Ulcerative Endocarditis." - *Ibid*, 1889, i, 640. His presidential addresses were written in a good style, and "two of his contributions deserve to be remembered, as they were, if not unique, at least exceedingly rare; one of these was an account of complete calcification of the pericardium, and the other of complete fatty transformation of a kidney in the pelvis of which a calculus was lodged".
Sources:
*Brit Med Jour*, 1908, 1613, with portrait

*Lancet*, 1908, i, 1807
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/E003000-E003999/E003000-E003099
Media Type:
Unknown