Jules Beclard (1818-1887) was a distinguished French physiologist.
Henry C. Bastian, M.D., F.R.S. (b. 1837), is a pathological anatomist and cerebral physiologist. His Brain as an Organ of Mind, 1880, is one of his best known works, and his articles in Quain’s Dictionary of Medicine, on Diseases of the Spinal Cord and Nervous System generally, are equally valuable contributions to this department of medical science.
John Hughlings Jackson, M.D., F.R.S., although distinguished as an ophthalmologist, is more famous for his researches and discoveries in connection with the nervous system and the localisation of cerebral functions.
Dr. Julius Althaus has made many valuable contributions to our knowledge of the nervous system.
Victor A. H. Horsley, F.R.S., etc., pathologist and brain surgeon, is the author of many papers on the functions of the brain and spinal cord, and has made important contributions to our knowledge of the functions of the thyroid gland, hitherto little understood, by which the treatment of myxœdema will, it is hoped, be greatly improved.
Surgeons.
The founding of museums of anatomy and surgical pathology by the Hunters, Dupuytren, Cloquet, Blumenbach, Barclay, and a great number of other anatomists and surgeons, has greatly assisted to advance the practical surgery of this century. Some of the more important improvements in the art as practised at the present time are the following, which are given in the article on Surgery in the Encyclopædia Britannica:—The thin thread ligature for arteries, introduced by Jones, of Jersey (1805); the revival of the twisting of arteries to arrest bleeding by Amussat (1829); the practice of drainage in large wounds and after operations by Chassaignac (1859); aspiration or the application of the principle of the air-pump for removing pus and fluid from tumours, etc., by Pelletan and others; the plaster-of-Paris bandage and other similar immovable applications for fractures, etc. (an old Eastern practice recommended in Europe about 1814 by the English consul at Bassorah); the re-breaking of badly set fractures; galvanocaustics and écraseurs; the general introduction of resection of joints (Fergusson, Syme, and others); tenotomy by Delpech and Stromeyer (1831); operation for squint by Dieffenbach (1842); successful ligature of great arteries by Abernethy and Astley Cooper (1806); crushing of stone in the bladder by Gruithuisen of Munich (1819), and Civiale of Paris (1826); cure of ovarian dropsy by the removal of the cyst, discovery of the ophthalmoscope, and great improvements in ophthalmic surgery by Von Gräfe and others; application of the laryngoscope in operations on the larynx by Czermak (1860) and others, together with additions to the resources of aural surgery and dentistry.
In the treatment of fractures English surgery was inferior to that of continental practice, especially French, in the early part of the present century. M. Roux in 1814 pointed out our shortcomings in this respect, contrasting English with French methods much to our disadvantage.[1034]
Sir Wm. Blizzard (1743-1835) was the first surgeon who tied the superior thyroid artery for goitre. He founded in conjunction with Maclaurin the medical school of the London Hospital.
Benjamin Bell (1763-1820), of Edinburgh, was the elder brother of Sir Charles Bell. He was professor of anatomy, surgery, and obstetrics, a man of letters and a famous operator. He published a System of the Anatomy of the Human Body and The Principles of Surgery.