Evans, Harold Muir (1866 - 1947)
by
 
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Asset Name
E004029 - Evans, Harold Muir (1866 - 1947)

Title
Evans, Harold Muir (1866 - 1947)

Author
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Identifier
RCS: E004029

Publisher
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England

Publication Date
2013-05-29

Subject
Medical Obituaries

Description
Obituary for Evans, Harold Muir (1866 - 1947), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Language
English

Source
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows

Full Name
Evans, Harold Muir

Date of Birth
29 September 1866

Date of Death
28 March 1947

Place of Death
Beccles, Suffolk

Occupation
General surgeon

Titles/Qualifications
MRCS 12 February 1889
 
FRCS by election 13 April 1939
 
MB London 1890
 
MD 1893
 
LRCP 1889

Details
Born 29 September 1866, the third son of George Evans, manager of the Randell and Evans estate, King's Cross, and his wife Clara Maria Muir. He was educated at Bute House and University College and Hospital, London, where he won the silver medal in anatomy 1885 and served as demonstrator of anatomy, and at Berlin University. He had from boyhood enjoyed sailing and fishing, and as soon as he had qualified he took a post as ship's surgeon with the Castle Royal Mail Steamship Company. In 1891 he was in South Africa as a medical officer of the Cape Government Railways on the Bloemfontein Vaal River extension. Returning to London he was appointed assistant registrar of the Central London Throat and Ear Hospital. He proceeded to the MD degree in 1893. Evans now settled in practice at Lowestoft where, in due course, he became consulting surgeon to the Lowestoft and East Suffolk Hospital. He was a certified factory surgeon and a referee under the Workmen's Compensation Acts. He filled the offices of chairman of the North Suffolk division and president of the Suffolk branch of the British Medical Association, and president of the Norfolk and Norwich Medico-chirurgical Society. He was commissioned as surgeon-lieutenant to the 1st Battalion of the Norfolk Volunteer Artillery and continued to serve, after the Volunteers were reorganized, in the territorial branch of the RAMC. During the war of 1914-18 he served as a major, RAMC. After retirement he lived at Beccles, Suffolk. Early in his career two patients were brought to him too late for effective treatment after being stung by fish. This led him to study venomous fish from all aspects, zoological, physiological, and medical. His combination of medical training with interest in all things marine and a naturalist's gift for observation fitted him to win valuable scientific results from this work, which began as a chance application of curiosity. He contributed several papers to the medical journals and to the Royal Society on the symptoms and treatment of cases of attack by sting-fish, on their poison, and on the glands which secrete and the organs which inject it. He also made his results known in some books written in an attractive style for the cultivated but not technical reader, the most notable being *Sting-fish and seafarer* 1943. He also wrote a *History of the Thames Estuary*. He was an accomplished artist and illustrated his own books. He was elected a Fellow of University College, London, and in 1939 a Fellow of the College as a Member of more than 20 years' standing. Evans married in 1896 Violet, second daughter of Nevile Reid of Hanworth, Middlesex, who survived him with two sons and a daughter. He died at Greenhayes, St Mary's Road, Beccles, Suffolk, on 28 March 1947, aged 80, and was buried at Beccles. Publications:- The pathology of rodent ulcer. *Brit med J*. 1896, 2, 1710. Intestinal gases, physiological and pathological. *Ibid*. 1897, 1, 649. The defensive spines of fishes. *Phil Trans Roy Soc Lond*, B, 1923, 212, 1. The anatomy and physiology of the air-bladder and Weberian ossicles in Cyprinidae. *Proc Roy Soc Lond*, B, 1925, 97, 545. A comparative study of the brains in British Cyprinoids. *Ibid*. 1931, 108, 233. The medulla oblongata of Cyprinoids; and the medulla of Clupeoids and Cyprinoids, with the acoustic tubercles. *Ibid*. 1932, 111, 247. The brain of Gadus. *Ibid*. 1935, 117, 367. The brains of Pleuronectidae. *Ibid*. 1937, 122, 308. On some seasonal changes in the pituitary gland of the eel. *Brit med J*. 1940, 1, 565. *Brain and body of fish*. London: Technical Press, 1940. 164 pp. *Sting fish and seafarer*. London: Faber, 1943. 180 pages.

Sources
*The Times*, 1 April 1947, p 7e
 
*Lancet*, 1947, 1, 504
 
*Brit med J*. 1947, 1, 510
 
Information from Mrs Violet Evans

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/E004000-E004999/E004000-E004099

URL for File
376212

Media Type
Unknown