Search Results for Medical Obituaries - Narrowed by: Public health reformer

First Title value, for Searching Teale, Thomas Pridgin junior (1831 - 1923)

2024-05-03T03:06:44Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-12-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003200-E003299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375404375404
Occupation General surgeon Ophthalmic surgeon Public health reformer
Details Born at Leeds on June 28th, 1831, the eldest son of Thomas Pridgin Teale, senr (qv), and succeeded his father both officially and in practice. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School, entered Winchester College in 1844, and matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, on February 2nd, 1849. He graduated BA in 1852 after gaining a 4th class in Mathematics, and then entered as a medical student at King's College, London. Selected by Sir William Bowman to act as Clinical Assistant at the Moorfields Ophthalmic Hospital in the absence of J Whitaker Hulke (qv) at the Crimean War, he received a training in ophthalmology, although he never specialized therein. After qualifying in 1855 he spent six months in visiting the medical schools on the Continent. Immediately after taking the Oxford MB he was appointed Lecturer in Anatomy and Surgery at the Leeds School of Medicine which his father had been instrumental in founding. He retained this post till 1876, and in 1864 became Surgeon to the Leeds General Infirmary, retiring from the active staff in 1884 after establishing a very high reputation both as surgeon and teacher. He was then appointed Consulting Surgeon with the charge of six beds. On June 7th, 1888, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Teale was primarily a teacher, a surgeon, and an ophthalmologist; secondarily a reformer in domestic sanitation at a time when the public gave little thought to drains, ventilation, and fogs. As a surgeon he collaborated with Sir Clifford Allbutt, then a physician on the staff of the Leeds General Infirmary, to revolutionize the treatment of the condition known as 'scrofulous neck', when as yet the infective character of tubercle was unknown. It was formerly the practice to treat enlarged glands of the neck in children by poulticing, painting with iodine, or other local remedies, with the result that they suppurated and ugly scars were left. Clifford Allbutt advocated, and Teale practised, the operative removal of these glands as soon as it was clear that simpler means were failing to give relief. The idea was new, but it soon met with general approval, for the surgical scar proved to be less unsightly than that produced by natural processes. Beginning practice at a time when the surgery of the eye was still undertaken by general surgeons, Teale modified a suction curette for the extraction of soft cataract; invented an operation for the relief of symblepharon; showed the value of atropine in the treatment of iritis; and gave an account of two cases of cysticercus discovered by the use of the ophthalmoscope. In surgery he advocated the operation of lithotomy rather than of crushing for the removal of stone from the bladder by those who were not specially skilled in the use of the lithotrite; he advocated ovariotomy as a legitimate surgical operation at a time when it was somewhat in disrepute, and, as might be expected, he continued his father's method of amputating by rectangular flaps. As a domestic sanitarian, he wrote in 1879 *Dangers to Health*, a pictorial guide to the more common sanitary defects met with in dwelling-houses. This little book consists of fifty-five coloured plates with simple explanations. It had a large circulation, and was translated into German by the late Princess Christian, and also into French and Spanish. It did much to destroy the system of cesspools and dumbwells which had continued a feature of house drainage in many towns until late in the Victorian era, while it helped to establish the flourishing trade of the sanitary engineer. It was written, however, before bacteriology had become a science, and too much importance is laid on the escape of sewer gas. Teale also printed a series of lectures on "Economy of Coal in House Fires", "The Principles of Domestic Fireplace Construction", "Hurry, Worry, and Money", and "Dust and Fresh Air". The "Teale grate", by which his name is probably best known to the general public, was the result of several years' experience and of a number of experiments to determine the best means of obtaining an open fireplace with slow combustion and a maximum of heating power. It abolished the old iron grate, placed high up in the fireplace, with black bars for winter and polished steel bars for summer use. The idea, however, was not wholly new, as Teale discovered to his great delight one day when, visiting Hatfield House, he found the principles he advocated were embodied there in grates of the sixteenth century. Sir Clifford Allbutt, in a tribute to the memory of Teale, tells of his informal appearance at their first meeting in Leeds in 1863, when he wore a bowler hat and lounge suit, being one of the first to discard traditional professional garb. The whole article by Sir Clifford contains valuable biographical matter, and deals especially with their early endeavour to obviate the scars of scrofula. Teale died suddenly at North Grange, Headingley, on November 13th, 1923, aged 92, survived by four sons and four daughters, one of his sons carrying on the family medical tradition. He was twice married: (1) to Alice, daughter of the Rev W H Teale (she died in 1891); and (2) to Jeannie, second daughter of D C Jones, of Tamworth. Excellent portraits of him accompany his biography in the *British Medical Journal* and the "Tribute" by Sir Clifford Allbutt in the same journal, as also the short notice of his work as an ophthalmologist in Professor Hirschberg's "Geschichte der Augenheilkunde" in *Graefe-Saemisch-Hess Handbuch der gesamten Augenheilkunde* (2nd edition, Band 14, Abt. iv, 397; Leipzig, 1914). Publications:- "On Lacrymal Obstructions, treated on Mr Bowman's Plan," 16mo, London, 1860; reprinted from *Med Times and Gaz*, 1860, i, 9, etc. "On the Relief of Symblepharon by Transplantation of Conjunctiva," 8vo, London, 1861; reprinted from *Ophthalmic Hosp Rep*, 1860-1, iii, 253. "On Atropine and Mercury in Acute Iritis." - *Ibid*, 1866, v, 156. *Dangers to Health in our own Houses: A Lecture*, 8vo, 10 plates, London, 1877; 4th ed (*Dangers to Health: a Pictorial Guide to Domestic Sanitary Defects*), 8vo, 70 plates, London, 1883. German, Italian, and other translations were published. *Hurry, Worry, and Money: the Bane of Modern Education*. Being the Presidential Address delivered in the Health Department of the Social Science Congress...with an Appendix, 8vo, London, 1883. *Economy of Coal in House Fires*, 1866. *Healthy Houses*, 8vo, London, 1884. International Health Exhibition Lecture No 10. "A Suction-curette for Extraction of Soft Cataract," 8vo, London, 1865; reprinted from *Ophthalmic Hosp Rep*, 1863-5, iv, 197. The curette was converted into a tube by roofing over the groove. It was connected with an india-rubber tube and suction was made by the mouth of the operator. "Abscess in Lung cured by Incision and Drainage." - *Lancet*, 1884, ii, 6. "On Enucleation of nevus," 8vo, London, 1867; reprinted from *Med-Chir Trans*, 1867, 1, 57. "Scraping in Surgery." - *Liverpool Med-Chir Jour*, 1887, vii, 36. "The Address in Surgery delivered at the Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association," 8vo, London, 1889; reprinted from *Brit Med Jour*, 1889, ii, 362. "Abandonment of Iridectomy in the Extraction of Hard Cataract," 8vo, London, 1893 (Bowman Lecture); reprinted from *Trans Ophthalmol Soc United Kingdom*, 1893, xiii, 1. *The Need for Reform of the Medical Examination System*, 12mo, Leeds, 1896. "On the Use of Diagram and Rough Drawing in the Record of Surgical Cases," 4to, plate, London, 1895; reprinted from *Clinical Sketches*. "On the Surgery of Scrofulous Glands" in Allbutt and Teale's *Clinical Lectures*, 8vo, London, 1885. Preface to Hector McLean Wilson's *Cottage Sanitation*, 8vo, London, 1893.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003221
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thompson, Sir Henry, Bart (1820 - 1904)

2024-05-03T03:06:44Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-12-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003200-E003299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375423375423
Occupation General surgeon Genito-urinary surgeon Urologist Public health reformer
Details Born at Framlingham, Suffolk, on August 6th, 1820, the only son of Henry Thompson, a tradesman who kept the village shop, by his wife Susannah, daughter of Samuel Medley (1769-1857), the artist who painted the portrait group of the founders of the Medical Society of London, and was one of the founders of University College, London. He was educated under Mr Fison, a Nonconformist minister at Wrentham, and early engaged in mercantile pursuits, as his parents, who were uncompromising Baptists, dreaded a scientific education and disliked the idea of a profession. Coming to London he was, however, apprenticed to George Bottomley, a medical practitioner at Croydon, in January, 1844, and in October he entered University College, London, to study medicine. Here he won the gold medal in anatomy in 1849, the gold medal in surgery in 1851, and took the MB degree. From June, 1850, he acted as the first House Surgeon to John Eric Erichsen (qv), who had recently been appointed Surgeon to University College Hospital. Joseph Lister (qv) was one of his dressers, and it was partly on Thompson's advice that Lister went to Edinburgh to work under James Syme. Thompson entered into partnership with his former master, George Bottomley, at Croydon, in January, 1851, but after a few months returned to London and began to practise surgery at 35 Wimpole Street, where he lived the rest of his life. He acted for a short time as Surgeon to the St Marylebone Infirmary, but in 1863 was elected Assistant Surgeon to University College Hospital, becoming full Surgeon in 1853, Professor of Clinical Surgery in 1866, Consulting Surgeon and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Surgery on his retirement in 1874. Thompson determined to devote himself particularly to genito-urinary surgery and visited Paris in July, 1858, to study the subject under Jean Civiale (1792-1867), who was the first to remove a vesical calculus by lithotrity. Beginning life thus as a pupil of Civiale, Thompson adopted his methods and at first crushed stones at repeated intervals, leaving it to nature to void the fragments, until in 1866 J T Clover (qv) invented the rubber evacuator and evacuating tubes. When Henry Jacob Bigelow (1818-1890) recommended crushing at a single sitting and removal of the fragments by operative measures, Clover's apparatus came into general use. He also began to advocate the discredited operation of suprapubic cystotomy about 1886, and it has since come into general use. He was thus a pioneer in the removal of tumours from the urinary bladder. Thompson's successful crushing operations at University College soon attracted attention, and in 1863 he operated upon Leopold I, King of the Belgians, completing the work Civiale had begun eighteen months previously. In July and December, 1872, Thompson treated Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, at Camden Place, Chislehurst. He performed the operation of lithotrity upon him under chloroform on Jan 2nd, 1873, and again on January 7th. A third sitting was arranged for midday on January 9th, but the Emperor died of uraemia at 10.45 am, an hour and a quarter before the operation was to have begun. Thompson's attainments and interests were exceptionally versatile. He was not only pre-eminent in his own branch of surgery, but his zeal for hygiene made him a pioneer in the cause of cremation. He was also an authority on diet, a devoted student of astronomy, an excellent artist, a collector of china, and a man of letters. He first drew attention to cremation by an article in the *Contemporary Review* in 1874. Experiments had then been made recently in Italy, but it was not until 1874, and chiefly by Thompson's energy, that a Cremation Society was founded in England. From that time onwards he was its President and did all in his power to promote the practice both here and on the Continent. A crematorium was built at Woking in 1879: its employment was forbidden by the Home Secretary and it was not used until March, 1885. The Government had in the meantime brought a test case against a man who had cremated his child in Wales, and Sir James Stephen decided that the practice was not illegal if no nuisance was caused. In 1902 Thompson took a leading part in the formation of a company which erected the crematorium, under the guidance of Mr Eassie, CE, at Golder's Green near Hampstead Heath, then an outskirt of London. Astronomy occupied much of Thompson's leisure, and he built an observatory at Molesey, where he had a country house. He presented some fine instruments to the Greenwich Observatory, the last being a telescope twice the size of any previously in use. It was manufactured at Dublin by Sir Howard Grubb, and was erected in 1897. Thompson doubtless inherited his artistic faculties from Samuel Medley, his maternal grandfather, but his original talent was fostered by study under Edward Elmore, RA, and Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, RA. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865, 1870, annually from 1872-1878, and again in 1881, 1883, and 1885. Two of his pictures were afterwards shown in the Paris Salon, and to this exhibition he contributed a landscape in 1891. He was also an eminent collector of china and acquired many fine specimens of old white and blue Nankin. A catalogue illustrated by the owner and James McNeill Whistler was issued in 1878, and the collection was sold at Christie's on June 1st, 1880. Besides numerous articles in magazines Thompson wrote two novels under the name of 'Pen Oliver'. *Charlie Kingston's Aunt*, published in 1885, presents the life of some fifty years earlier. *All But, a Chronicle of Laxenford* (1886) is illustrated by twenty full-page drawings by the author, in one of which he portrayed himself as he was in 1885. Cultured society had great attractions for Thompson. As a host he was famous for his 'octaves', which were dinners of eight courses for eight people at eight o'clock. They were commenced in 1872, and the last, which was the 301st, was given shortly before his death. The guests were as carefully chosen as the food, and for a quarter of a century the most famous persons in the worlds of art, letters, science, politics, diplomacy, and fashion met at his table in Wimpole Street. King Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, dined there once, and his son, King George V, when Prince of Wales, attended Thompson's 300th octave. There is a portrait group of one of the octaves in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, No 116, with the original studies by W J Solomon, RA. Thompson received the honour of knight bachelor in 1867 and was created a baronet on February 20th, 1899. He married on December 16th, 1861, Kate Fanny, daughter of George Loder, of Bath. Lady Thompson was well known as a pianist. She was paralysed for some years, but survived her husband, dying on August 30th, 1904, leaving a son, Henry Francis Herbert, and two daughters. Sir Henry Thompson died at 35 Wimpole Street, W, on April 18th, 1904, and was cremated at Golder's Green. A three-quarter-length portrait painted by Sir J E Millais, RA, in 1881 hangs in the Tate Gallery. There is a bust by F W Pomeroy, RA, in the Crematorium at Golder's Green. A cartoon portrait by Ape in *Vanity Fair* (1874) is subscribed 'Cremation'. There are numerous photographs in the College Collection, and an excellent one in University College, Gower Street. Publications: *The Pathology and Treatment of Stricture of the Urethra both in the Male and Female*, 8vo, London, 1854; 4th ed, London and Philadelphia, 1885. Translated into German, München, 1888. *The Enlarged Prostate, its Pathology and Treatment*, 8vo, London, 1858; 6th ed, London and Philadelphia, 1886. Translated into German, Erlangen, 1867. *Practical Lithotomy and Lithotrity*, 8vo, London, 1868; 3rd ed, 1880. Translated into German, Kassel and Berlin, 1882. *Clinical Lectures on Diseases of the Urinary Organs*, 8vo, London, 1868; 8th ed, 1888. Translated into French, 1874, and again in 1889. Translated into German, Berlin, 1877. *On Tumours of the Bladder*, 1884. *Lectures on some Important Points connected with the Surgery of the Urinary Organs*, 8vo, London, 1884. *On the Suprapubic Operation of Opening the Bladder for the Stone and for Tumours*, 8vo, London, 1886. *Traité pratique des Maladies des Voies urinaires*, a collected edition of Thompson's surgical works, was published in Paris in 1880. *Cremation*, 16mo, London, 1874; 4th ed, 1901. *Modern Cremation, its History and Practice*, 12mo, London, 1889; 4th ed, 1901. Thompson was also part-author of the article on cremation in the *Encyclopaedia Britannica* (9th ed). *Food and Feeding*, 8vo, London, 1880; 12th ed, enlarged, 1910. *Diet in Relation to Age and Activity*, 1886; 4th ed, 1903; revised edition, 1910.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003240
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset