Elsworth, Richard Cogswell (1859 - 1922)
by
 
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Asset Name
E001611 - Elsworth, Richard Cogswell (1859 - 1922)

Title
Elsworth, Richard Cogswell (1859 - 1922)

Author
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Identifier
RCS: E001611

Publisher
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England

Publication Date
2011-11-16

Subject
Medical Obituaries

Description
Obituary for Elsworth, Richard Cogswell (1859 - 1922), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Language
English

Source
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows

Full Name
Elsworth, Richard Cogswell

Date of Birth
1859

Place of Birth
Carlisle, UK

Date of Death
May 1922

Place of Death
Swansea, Wales, UK

Occupation
General surgeon

Titles/Qualifications
MRCS July 30th 1891
 
FRCS December 10th 1896
 
MB CM Edin 1888
 
MD (Hons) 1901

Details
Born at Carlisle, and was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he acted as Assistant to Sir Thomas Fraser, FRS, Regius Professor of Medicine, and subsequently became Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical School. He was highly appreciated by Sir Thomas, and, pursuing a careful course of study, doubtless laid the foundations of that diagnostic skill and singularly rapid and brilliant craftsmanship for which he was distinguished throughout his life. At Edinburgh Elsworth was Resident Physician at the Royal Infirmary. He then became Assistant Physician at Wye House Asylum, Buxton, and afterwards settled in practice at Swansea, where he was successively Surgeon to the Ear and Throat Department at Swansea Hospital, and then Surgeon, becoming Consulting Surgeon in 1920. He started as a general practitioner, but was soon in a position to devote himself entirely to surgery, when he built up a large practice as a consultant. "In these parts of the country", says one of his colleagues in Swansea, "a consultation or an urgent operation may mean a journey of anything up to two hundred miles. There are probably few roads in South or West Wales over which Elsworth had not driven his car by day or night. His hospital patients always came first. Never mind how urgent and attractive the call, he would never be tempted to leave till his task in the wards or operating theatre was finished. His hospital work was his religion; never sparing himself, he tolerated no slackness on the part of his assistants. Like most men of his sturdy type, he had the power of infecting those around him with his untiring energy and concentration, and he set an inspiring example to his many house surgeons." "Looking back on Elsworth's career", says the same biographer, "what struck one most of all was his almost superhuman physical and mental energy. The pace at which he got through a heavy morning's work at the hospital astounded anyone watching him for the first time; every movement was crisp and full of purpose - no hesitation, nothing slipshod, everything looked so very easy. His friends realized that this quickness was due to long practice as Demonstrator of Anatomy in Edinburgh, and later to the constant thought and close reasoning brought to bear in perfecting his surgical technique in general and his manipulative dexterity in particular. When gastrojejunostomy was in its infancy he spent many an hour at home getting into touch with his needle and thread. While others talked he would be stitching away at pieces of cloth laid over the arm of his easy-chair - 'woman's work', he called it, but just an instance of the sound foundations on which his somewhat unorthodox methods rested." He joined the RAMC at an early stage of the European War, and in addition to his work at Swansea had charge of the large 3rd Western General Hospital at Cardiff, which he visited thrice each week. He went ahead with indomitable pluck and finished his life as no doubt he would have wished it - quickly, and with no distressing days of inactivity. He died suddenly at his residence, 152 St Helen's Road, Swansea, on May 27th or 28th, 1922, after sustaining a poisoned wound of the finger. Publications:- "Total Extirpation of the Prostate. Freyer's Operation." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1903, 1, 124. "Intra-abdominal Anastomosis." - *Ibid.*, 1903, ii, 887. "Operations on the Middle Ear." - *Ibid.*, 1903, ii, 1133. "Points in the Anatomy of the Temporal Bone." - *Jour. Of Laryngol.*, 1904, xix, 173. "Some Obscure Cases of Urinary Disorder." - *Practitioner*, 1906, lxxvi, 761. "Chronic Indigestion a Surgical Disease." - *Ibid.*, 1909, lxxxiii, 356. "Intestinal Obstruction." - *Lancet*, 1899, I, 1422. "Tumour of Cauda Equina." - *Ann. Of Surg.*, 1907, xlvi, 603, and *Edin. Med. Jour.*, 1908, N.S. xxiii, 236.

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/E001600-E001699

URL for File
373794

Media Type
Unknown