Abernethy, John (1764-1831)

Notes of Abernethy's lectures (MSS.814-819, 6881 and 6906) and a collection of correspondence and other papers relating to him (MS.8337).

1808-c.1820

8 volumes

MSS.814-819, 6881 and 6906: Purchased 1911, 1928, 1932, 1956, 1992; presented 1931. Accession numbers: 26208, 56980, 58623, 89161, 303159, 348857, 348918. MS.8337 comprises material from a wide variety of sources: Purchased from Glendining, London, 1933, 1935, Sotheby's, London, 1922, 1930-1932, Glendining, London, 1932-1934, Puttick & Simpson, 1921, Stevens, London, 1929, 1931, 1932, and Mrs. Watson, Burnley, 1945, presumably once part of the Thomas Madden Stone autograph collection. Accession numbers: 67874, 65133, 91799, 67614, 56474, 74959, 56370, 68323, 6779, 67540, 67801, 64177, 67914, 72200, 345576.

John Abernethy was born in London in 1764 and attended Wolverhampton Grammar School. He trained in medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital and the London Hospital, being named Assistant Surgeon at St. Bartholomew's in 1787. From 1791 onwards he gave extremely popular lectures on anatomy, physiology and surgery which were the basis of modern medical training at St. Bartholomew's; indeed, his eminence in the medical profession of the time is due to these talents as an educator and presenter rather than to original research. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1796 and became full Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's in 1815. He resigned the latter post in 1827 and died in 1831. For further information see The Dictionary of National Biography.

At Wellcome Collection: Further notes of lectures by Abernethy are found as MS.5600 and MS.5606 in the Hunterian Society's papers. Abenethy appears in an administrative capacity in the minutes of the Medical Committee of the Royal Jennerian Society (MS.4304) and of the Lyceum Medicum Londinense (MS.MSL.140a-d). His signature can be found on various admission tickets, testimonials and attendance certificates (MSS.5945/2, 7274/1, 7286, 7545/78, 7847/1) and in the autograph collection of Catherine Hutton (MS.5270). Medical historical material on him can be found in the papers of Max Neuburger (MS.8289) and Charles Singer (PP/CJS/B.6/1/19).

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973), and typescript supplementary finding aids.