Abernethy and the golden age of surgical teaching

A beautifully bound handwritten volume, John Abernethy's Lectures on Surgery in the Cowlishaw Collection at the library of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons proved the stimulus for a study of the work of Abernethy and two of his contemporaries in 19th century London, namely Charles Bell and James Paget. All excelled in the teaching of anatomy, physiology and pathology, continuing the Hunterian tradition. Abernethy extended Hunter's work on ligation of aneurysms and was a prime mover in the establishment of the Medical School at St Bartholomew's; Bell likewise assisted in the foundation of the Middlesex Hospital Medical School and made important discoveries relating to the nervous system and the circulation; James Paget excelled in the description of surgical pathology as a basis for disease presentation. All three became Fellows of the Royal Society and left a legacy of eponymous structures and important pathological and clinical knowledge.