From the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century a revolution occurred in the understanding of medicine and the development of medical practice. The prevailing paradigm rooted in the humoral theory of the ancients was replaced by insights derived from ‘solidism’, based on greater detailed understanding of anatomy and pathology, and later by cell theory. In the specific case of surgery, there was rapid development in the middle years of the nineteenth century as the benefits of anaesthesia and asepsis promoted its growth from an empiric craft to a scientifically based profession.
Benjamin Collins Brodie (1783-1862) was at the centre of many of these developments. As a young man he was a pupil of Everard Home’s at St.George’s Hospital, later becoming a surgeon there and actively involved in the creation of St. George’s Medical School and the wider development of the medical curriculum. As a surgeon he became the leading practitioner of the mid-Victorian period in succession to Sir Astley Cooper, perhaps his most famous operation being the removal of a half-sovereign from the chest of the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Brodie was also a leading pathologist, his major published work being on diseases of the joints.
In addition to his work in the operating theatre and in the laboratory, Brodie played a leading part in the professionalisation of medicine. As well as his efforts at St. George’s, he was active in the introduction of the Fellowship examination at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1843, becoming President of the College in 1844. He was also closely involved in the debate on the ‘regulation’ of medicine in the UK, becoming the inaugural President of the General Medical Council in 1858, the year he was elected President of the Royal Society.
John Sheldrake is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Business School, having previously been Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London and Reader in Modern History at London Guildhall University. John has published widely in the spheres of management, politics and history, his book Management Theory currently being in its second edition, the first edition having been translated into Japanese and Russian. He studied the history of medicine at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine and has published articles on the development of surgery, pathology and hospitals. John was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1989 and won the Society of Apothecaries Maccabean Prize in 1996 for his work on the sanitarian and surgeon Sir John Simon.
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