[From Franciscus Vallesius: Hippocrates. Coloniae, 1589.] ANNALS OF MEDICAL HISTORY New Series , Vol . VIII July , 1936 Number 4

THE PERSONALITIES OF THE OXFORD MEDICAL SCHOOL

FROM 1700 TO *1880

By SIR HUMPHRY ROLLESTON, Bt., G.C.V.O., K.C.B., M.D.

LONDON, ENGLAND

URING the eighteenth cen- don and of the Royal Society which was tury the conditions at Ox- established in 1662. The brilliancy of ford and Cambridge were this earlier period by contrast made the extremely unsatisfactory. somnolence of the succeeding century As Trevelyan remarked: “the slumbersappear the more profound; it was quite Dof the English Universities in the eight- common for professors not to lecture, eenth century were more scandalous and examinations were little more than than the lighter and more broken slum- a farce. Adam Smith (1723-90) from his bers of the Church.” At both Universi- experience at Balliol in the early forties ties it was the period of great. probably of the eighteenth century, stated that the greatest, stagnation in medicine. At the college lecturers had given up all Oxford the second half of the seven- pretence at lecturing; Edward Gibbon teenth century had been remarkable (! 737-94) the historian, when at Mag- for the scientific activities of the “Philo- dalen in 1752-53 formed the same opin- sophicall Clubbe” or Society dating ion about the professors in a University from about 1649, the members of which “plunged in port and prejudice”; and met in Wadham and were familiarly ten years later Jeremy Bentham known as the “Oxonian Sparkles”; it (1 748-82) at Queen’s College found that included as residents during the trou- “it was absolutely impossible to learn blous times of the rebellion: Robert anything at Oxford.” The state of the Boyle, John Locke, Christopher Wren, medical school, if indeed there was any- Thomas Willis, Richard Lower, Wil- thing worthy of the name, went through liam Petty and John Mayow, and was its period of greatest depression. thus a kind of antecedent of the “Invis- But as regards medicine in Oxford the ible or Philosophical College” in Lon- redeeming feature of the eighteenth *Paper in the Section of Medical History, at the meeting of the British Medical Asso ciation at Oxford, July 24, 1936. century was the number of endowments Earl of Lichfield’s death; and the estab- which medicine received or shared with lishment of the three Aldrichian chairs the University. These were (1) the of chemistry, anatomy, and practice of benefactions of John Radcliffe (1653- medicine took place in 1803, or six years 1714) , amounting eventually to £140,- after the death of the founder. 000, (2) of Matthew Lee (1694-1755), The occupants of the Lee’s reader- (3) of the Earl of Lichfield (1718-72) , ship, the Lichfield, and the Aldrichian and (4) of George Oakley Aldrich chairs were naturally the teachers of (1722-97), fellow of Merton. The Rad- medicine during the second part of the cliffe Travelling fellowships were, ac- eighteenth and the first half of the nine- cording to Nias, intended by Radcliffe teenth centuries. The chairs circulated to benefit the University directly by im- amongst a few competitors, and rnore proving the raw material for appoint- than one of them were rather frequently ments to University professorships, and held by the same man, especially by the not in the way they have in practice al- regius professors, Kidd, Ogle, and Ac- ways been utilized. Before Radcliffe’s land. death the bequest was practically settled Matthew Lee (1694-1755), who was for the appointment of two fellows witli educated at Westminster and Christ an annual dividend of £300 for ten Church, was d .m . (1726), practised in years each, five years to be spent in study Oxford and later in London. By his will and travel abroad, and with rooms in dated August 27, 1755, it was very defi- University College when in Oxford. nitely decreed that no instruction was to Two fellows were appointed in July, be given from his legacy, which origi- 1715. In 1758 when some outstanding nally was of the value of £20.000, “in life interests had probably fallen in, the any science or art except anatomy, phys- Radcliffe Trustees decided to erect the ick, and botany.” Eventually the income Radcliffe Infirmary which twelve years available under Dr. Lee’s Trustees in- later, on October 18 (St. Luke’s Day) creased considerably, and Acland when 1770, was opened for the admission of anatomical reader received £200 an- patients. A similar delay was shown in nually, a reader in chemistry was ap- several of the other benefactions: thus, pointed in 1858, with Acland’s ap- though Dr. Matthew Lee founded a proval, and later readerships in physics, readership in anatomy at Christ Church mathematics and history were ap- in 1750, and five years later in his will pointed, and scholarships were for a laid down further and stringent regula- time awarded, the conditions laid down tions, it was not until 1766 that the first by the founder being thus widely con- reader in anatomy, John Parsons travened. (1742-85) was appointed at Christ The Lichfield Professorship of Clin- Church, for this was a college and not a ical Medicine at the Radcliffe Infirmary university endowment. A small anatom- was endowed with £7000 in the 3 per ical school was built in 1765 under Par- cent stock by Geörge Henry Lee, third sons’ direction within the college walls Earl of Lichfield (1718-72) who was and was accordingly nicknamed “skele- Chancellor of the University of Oxford ton corner.” (1762) and as one of the Radcliffe Trus- The first Lichfield professor of clin- tees opened the Radcliffe Infirmary in ical medicine, also John Parsons, was 1770. The Lichfield chair was occupied elected in 1780, or eight years after the successively by Parsons, Wall, Bourne, Ogle, and Acland from 1780 to 1883 the Royal College of Physicians of Lon- when on Acland’s resignation it was di- don (1787) and Harveian Orator vided into two lectureships, each held (1788) , and fellow of the Royal Society for two years, by a physician and a sur- on March 8, 1788. He was appointed lcc- geon. turer on chemistry in 1781. But in 1785 John Parsons’ most promising career he was elected Lichfield professor of was 011 April 3, 1785, cut short at the age clinical medicine by convocation, a post of forty-three by a fever then prevalent which he retained until his death. Wall in Oxford. He was a Yorkshireman and was an active teacher and wrote a num- was educated as a scholar at Westmin- ber of papers, among them one in 1783 ster and a student at Christ Church and dealing with the diseases of the South medically in London, and in Edinburgh Sea Islanders as described by surgeons where in 1766 he gained the medal, who had been there. This probably given by John Hope (1725-86), for “the formed the basis of a conversation in the most extensive and elegant hortus sic- following year with Samuel Johnson cus.” He was elected the first Lee’s who, when in Oxford and having tea reader in anatomy, being, like Dr. Lee, with Wall. said: an alumnus of Westminster and Christ It is wonderful how little good Rad- Church, and superintended the erec- cliffe’s Travelling fellowships have done. I tion of the anatomical school before he know nothing that has been imported by took up his teaching in 1766; he did them. . . . It is in vain to send them to not proceed to the degree of b .m . until France, and Italy, and Germany, for all three years later, and then combined that is known there is known here; I’d send medical practice with teaching. In 1772 them out of Christendom; I’d send them he was elected physician to the Rad- among barbarous nations. cliffc Infirmary, and three years later a In 1811 Wall rcported a case of pre- fellow of the Royal College of Physi- cocious puberty in a girl. the account cians of London, where he gave the being discreetly written in Latin. He Harveian Oration in 1784. In 1780 he wrote his father’s life and edited his was elected the first Lichfield professor medical tracts in 1780, and in 1806 re- of clinical medicine. published and expanded his father’s MaTtin Wall (1747-1824) was a little pamphlet on the Malvern waters. Ile younger, but lived much longer, than was a friend of Thomas Percival (1740- Parsons, whom he succeeded as Lichfield 1804) of Manchester, the author of professor. He was the son of John Wall “Medical Ethics” (1803), and this (1708-76) a medical man of Worcester probably cxplains why he published and of Worcester College, and later a two chemical papers in the Transac- fellow of Merton, who is also noticed in tions of the Manchester Literary and, the “Dictionary of National Biogra- Philosophical Society in 1785, the year phy.” Martin was educated at Winchcs- in which he gave up the post of univer- ter and New College of which he was a sity readcr in chemistry on defcating fellow. His medical training was chiefly Vivian, the regius professor of medi- obtained in Edinburgh, but he also at- cine, in the contest for the Lichfield pro- tended the teaching at St. Bartholo- fessorship of clinical medicine. He also mew’s Hospital and that of John brought out: “Dissertations on Select Hunter. He was physician to the Rad- Subjects in Ghemistry and Medicine.”1 cliffe Infirmary (1775-1824), fellow of 1 Öxford, 1783. This included his (1) Inaugural Dis- physic begun at the commencement of sertation on the Study of Chemistry the latter half of Lent term and be un- when appointed public reader of chem- interruptedly continued till the same be istry in the University on May 7, 1781, fmished.” (2) Syllabus of Lectures in Chemistry The regius professorship of medicine 1782, and (3) Conjectures on the Ori- was founded in 1546, six years after the gin and Antiquity of Symbols in Astron- corresponding regius chair of physic at omy and Chemistry. He also wrote Cambridge, by Henry vm, the salary of “Clinical Observations on the Use of £40 annually being paid by the royal Opium in Slow Fevers and in the Syn- exchequer. In 1617 James 1 augmented ochus, with Remarks on the Epidemic the yearly salary by the mastership of Fever at Oxford, 1785.”2 The fever was the Hospital of Ewelme in Oxfordshire. typhus. Further additions were made by the lectureship on anatomy founded and at- Aldric hian Bene fa cti on tached to the regius chair by Richard George Oakley Aldrich (1721-97), Tomlins of Westminster in 1624, the m.a ., m.d ., sometime fellow of Merton, Aldrichian professorship of anatomy in left, whcn his will was proved in 1798, 1803, and the Aldrichian professorship £12,794 to found three praelectorships of the practice of medicine in 1858, thus or professorships in chemistry, anatomy bringing the stipend up to about £500. and the practice of medicine, a third of During the eighteenth century thcre the annual income, namely £ 130, to be were six occupants of the regius chair of paid by the trustees to each of the chairs. medicine, but there is little information The benefactor’s directions about the available about them. The first was duties of the occupants would now, if ThomasHoy (1659-1718?) who, though taken literally, be extremely exacting unknown for any medical activity, was and those for the chemical professor in 1698, the year of his appointment as somewhat puzzling. For this professor regius professor, described by John was bidden to give yearly “one course of Evelyn as “a very learned man.” Born Processes in Medicinal and Philosoph- in London he was educated at Merchant ical Chemistry in illustration of doc- Taylors School and at St. John’s Col- trinal tendency of sucli series or course lege, Oxford, where he was elected a of Processes and pointing out the con- probationary fellow and took the de- clusion fairly deducible from the facts grees of b .a . (1680), m.a . and b .m . they exhibit.” The professor of anat- (1684), and d .m . (1689). He was ad- omy was bound to give every winter or mitted a candidate at the Royal College spring one entire course of physiology of Physicians of London 011 December and to dissect the dead human body. As 22, 1693, and practised near Warwick. regarded the chair of the practice of Thomas Hearne (1678-1735), a histo- medicine it was laid down that the re- rian of contemporary Oxford and, like gius professor of medicine, though pref- Anthony Wood (1632-95) with whom erence was not to be given to him by he is compared by Mallet, much given virtue of his office, his deputy or any to snarling criticism, stated that Hoy other doctor of physic of the university shamefully neglected his professorial should every year “read a complete duties and owed his chair to the influ- course of lectures on the practice of ence of William Gibbons (1649-1728) 2 Oxford, 1786. with Lord Somers (1651-1716), Lord Chancellor. Gibbons, like Hoy, was ed- the chair for twenty-nine years (1772- ucated at Merchant Taylors School and 1801) and lived into the nineteenth St. John’s College, Oxford, and prac- century, the most notable point appears tising in London espoused the cause of the Apothecaries against the fellows of the Royal College of Physicians, and as “Mirmillo” in the “Dispensary” is made by Samuel Garth to say: While others meanly ask’cl whole months to slay I oft despatch’d the patient in a day. Hoy, who probably died in 1718 in Ja- maica, was the author of a poem, “Agathocles, the Sicilian Usurper,”3 published anonymously, and of two es- says4 on Ovid’s “De Arte Amandi, or the Arts of Love,” and on the “Hero and Leander” of Musaeus from the Greck. ()f the remaining five. Joshua Lasher, also a fellow of St. John’s, was professor from 1718 to 1729, and was followed by William Beauvoir (1679-1730), a fel- low of Pembroke, who survived for one year only. William Woodford (ob. 1758) was appointed in 1730, but did not leave London until 1734; he became prematurely senile during his twenty- to have been that a patient of his, Dr. eight years’ tenure of office, and accord- Ralph Cawley, Principal of Brasenose ingly Nathan Alcock (1707-79), an from 1770 to 1777, was “famous in the unauthorized teacher in chemistry, an- annals of medicine” (A. G. Gibson) for atomy and medicine, attractecl all the treating himself, successfully for a time, students from the official lecturers, such for dropsy by digitalis in 1776, on the as Thomas Lawrence (1711-85) lec- advice of a carpenter. This was nine turer on anatomy from 1745 to 1750, years before the appearance in 1785 of who were put up to suppress him but “An Account of the Foxglove and some had to be content with addressing the of its Medical Uses; with practical Re- walls of an empty museum. It appears marks on Dropsy and other Diseases” by that about this date (1746) the great Al- William Withering (1741-99) who, brecht von Haller (1708-77), then at however, in 1775 had learnt of its use Göttingen, was invited but declined to as a cure for dropsy from an old woman come to the rescue. in Shropshire. In the following year John Kelly, a student of Christ Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) met Church and regius professor (1759-72) , Withering in consultation over a patient lived and practiced at Bristol. About for whom foxglove was prescribed, and William Vivian (1728-1801), who held in 1780 he published the thesis for the 3 London, 1683. degree of m.d . at Edinburgh of his son 4 London, 1682. Charles Darwin (1758-78), in which cases of dropsy treated by digitalis were College of Physicians he was not eligible included; actually this was the first pub- for the Harveian Oration. Possession of lished record of the use of digitalis, but the fellowship, though a pointer, is not an infallible criterion of merit. In 1785, however, Vivian was beaten in convoca- tion by Wall in a contest for the Lich- field professorship of clinical medicine. I11 1 795 Vivian resigned his physiciancy at the Radcliffe Infirmary but remained regius professor until his death in 1801. Sir Christopher Pegge (1765-1822) was the only son by his first wife of Sam- uel Pegge the Younger (1753-1800), barrister, antiquarian, musical com- poser, and poet. He went up as a com- moner to Christ Church in 1782, and in 1788 was elected a fellow of Oriel, then an exceptional distinction. But two years later he resigned this fellowship on returning to Christ Church as Lce’s reader in anatomy. In 1789 he took the degree of m.b . and set up in practice in Oxford where his well-established sen- iors, Wall and Bourne, wore the wig, large turned-up hat, and gold-headed cane that Rowlandson’s caricatures dis- play. Though only five and twenty, Pegge paid them the compliment of adopting the same professional trap- pings. Cox (1786-1875), the esquire bedel and coroner, who not only knew Pegge, but attended some of his lectures, spokc of his “noble appearance” and the credit belongs to Withering (Ful- “courteous manner,” but diluted this ton) . praise by the rather tclling comment Strange as it may now seem, the re- that “Dr. Kidd, his successor as Regius gius professor was not always the most professor, a man in all things straight- eminent of the medical men resident in forward and anti-humbug, was the first Oxford, at any rate as judged by con- medical doctor who rejected the wig and tributions to medical knowledge. The large-brimmed hat and never, I believe, fellowship and the Harveian Oration of carried a gold-headed stick.” the Royal College of Physicians of Lon- There was plenty of time at Oxford don were held by three Oxford residents in the eighteenth century for satire and during Vivian’s incumbency, namely by Pegge came in for some in: John Parsons (1784), Martin Wall THE OXFORD MEDICAL TRIO (1788) and Robert Bourne (1797) ; but I would 110t call in any one of them all, as Vivian was not a fellow of the Royal For only “the weakest will go to the TT7z//”; 1 he second, like Death, that scvthe-armed nington (1745-1817) , regius professor mower, of physic (1794-1817) at Cambridge, Will speedily make yoti a peg or two lower; While the third, with the fees he so silently was similarly active in the Volunteer earns, Is “the bourne whence no traveller ever re- turns.” Cox also said that Pegge “ought indeed to have set up his brass plate in London and near the Court and the West End; especially as he had professionally to run a hopeless race against two Oxford phy- sicians, Dr. Wall and Dr. Bourne in greater practice than any two have since been at the same time.” Pegge, however, made rapid progress in his profession; in 1 ygo he was elected phvsician to the Radcliffe Infirmary and held the post. though he did not lecture there, until 1808 when asthma made him restrict his activities. A fluent speaker, his lectures on anatomy soon became extremely popular and it was then thought not to be the thing to leave Oxford without attendingone course of these lectures. His early promise and success, however, did not mature and as a lecturer he became so desultory that “the protection of the Dean and tutors of Christ Church could never make his anatomical school famous beyond the walls of the University, or popular with the young men within them” (Hol- land). On March 19, 1795 he became a fellow of the Royal Society, and in the Movement about the same time, but following year he was made a fellow of had been already knighted in Decem- the Royal College of Physicians of Lon- ber, 1 795 when presenting a congratu- don, where in 1805 he delivered the latory address from the University to Harveian Oration which, however, was George 111 on his escape from the recent not published. Cox stated cpiite bluntly attempt on his life. Pegge also formed that “Dr. Pegge got himself knighted; part of a similar congratulatory deputa- not that it got him more patients any tion to George 111 in 1803, but this was more than the wig, the large turned-up after his knighthood. Another resem- hat and the gold-headed cane.” In June, blance between them was that they were 1799 the Oxford Loyal Volunteers were the first regius professors at their respec- inspected by the Duke of York, and tive universities to give the Harveian Pegge as major was soon afterwards Oration which. however, neither of knighted by George m. Sir Isaac Pen- them published. In 1801 Pegge becainc regius professor, but it would appear Physic,” painted by T. Unwins and en- curious that Wall, who in 1785 had graved by J. Agar in R. Ackermann’s beaten the then regius professor in the History of the University of Oxford is believed to be a portrait of Pegge, and the corresponding portrait of “The Doc- tor in Physic” in Volume 2 of R. Acker- mann’s History of the University of Cambridge to be that of Sir Isaac Pen- nington. John Kidd, son of the captain of a merchant vessel, was in many ways a re- markable contrast to his predecessor Pegge whose father and grandfather both appeared in the “Dictionary of National Biography.” Kidd was an un- assuming little man, described in W. Tuckwell’s Reminiscences as “trotting about the streets in a spencer, a tailless great-coat then becoming obsolete,” and was the first physician in Oxford to give up the wig and other professional trap- pings. A Grecian scholar, Kidd was born on September 10, 1775, was a scholar of Westminster and a student of Christ Church, going up in 1793 at what was in the annals of Westminster School called “the Golden election” of three contest for the Lichfield professorship of afterwards distinguished men: William clinical medicine, was not a successful Corne (churchman) , Phillimore (civil candidate for the regius chair. The rea- law) and Kidd. He then worked for four son may possibly be that Wall did not go years (1797-1801) at Guy’s Hospital in because the Lichfield chair was the where he came under the influence of better paid. Pegge retained the Lee’s Astley Cooper (1768-1841), on whose readership until 1816 when he was recommendation he was later ap- obliged by asthma to leave Oxford, and pointed regius professor. Returning to for a time practised in London and was a Oxford in 1801 he took the degree of censor of the Royal College of Physicians b .m . and began the long succession of in 1817. But getting worse rather than teaching posts: teacher of chemistry better. the asthma banished him to Hast- (1801) ; reader in mineralogy, being suc- ings whence he made occasional visits ceeded in 1813 by William Buckland during term time to perform his profes- (1784-1856) ; first Aldrichian professor sional duties. On one of these visits he of chemistry (1803-22), being suc- died in Oxford and was buried in the ceeded in 1822 by his pupil C. G. D. south aisle of Ewelme Church in Au- Daubeny (1795-1867) ; Lee’s reader in gust, 1822. anatomy (1816-45) at Christ Church; He does not appear to have written and regius professor of medicine anything. The illustration of “Doctor in (1822-51). Kidd was physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary from 1808 to 1826, Radcliffe Library at Oxford” (1835) . bnt lectured on anatomy, not on med- Though most anxious to further sci- icine, and taught from wax models, not entific and medical teaching in Oxford from routine dissection of the human body. until 1845 when he gave up teach- ing. Kidd was an efficient Radcliffe Li- brarian (1834-51). At the Royal Col- lege of Physicians of London he was elected a fellow in 1818 and gave the Harveian Oration in 1836, was made a fellow of the Royal Society 011 March 28, 1822, and contributed two papers to the Philosophical Transactions (1815, 1825) • very hard worker, he wrote mtich; having lectured for some years on mineralogy and geology he pub- lished “Outline of Mineralogy” (2 vols.) in 1809; “A Geological Essay on the Imperfect Evidence in Support of a Theory of the Earth”;5 “An Answer to a Charge against the English Universities in the Supplement to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia.”6 Deeply religious, if somewhat narrow-minded, Kidd wrote “An Introductory Lecture to a Course in Comparative Anatomy, illustrative of Paley’s Natural Theology” (1824) ; and he was 110t successful in making any probably for this reason he was selected way against the predominant classical to write the second of the eight Bridge- stream; he inherited nothing from water treatises entitled “On the Adap- Pegge, and though he was associated tation of External Nature to the Phys- with Ogle in efforts for science and the ical Condition of Man: principally with improvement of medical examinations Reference to the Supply of his Wants they did not leave Acland as regius and the Exercise of his Intellectual Fac- professor any laboratory, instruments, ulties,”7 which was popular, reaching a books or class, and the regius professor sixth edition in 1852; for this he re- was not ex officio attached to the Rad- ceived a thousand pounds. He also pub- cliffe Infirmary. It was stated before the lished “Observations on Medical Re- Royal Commission of 1850 that “Ox- form”8 and “Further Observations on ford had ceased altogether to be a school Medical Reform,”9 and brought out a of Medicine,” and between 1840 and “Catalogue of the Works in Natural 1854 the number of b .m . degrees con- Science and Medicine contained in the ferred was fourteen. James Adey Ogle (1792-1857) was 5 Oxford, 1815. the son of Richard Ogle, a successful 6 Oxford, 1818. 7London, 1833. practitioner in London, and was edu- 8 Oxford, 1841. cated at Eton and Trinity College, Ox- 9 Oxford, 1842. ford, being a scholar and subsequently mathematical tutor of that Society and cousin’s term of office as regius pro- thus having J. H. (afterwards cardinal) fessor. Newman as a pupil. After studying med- Henry Wentworth Acland (1815- icine abroad, in Edinburgh, and in Lon- 1900) was an aristocrat by birth, in ap- don. he settled down to practice in Ox- pearance, and in his broad outlook on ford, becoming Aldrichian professor of science and medicine. Versatile, artistic, medicine (1824-57) > Lichfield professor thinking on big lines, and not a master of clinical medicine (1830-57), and, of meticulous detail, he was in many re- rather late in life, regius professor of spects far in advance of his time, espe- medicine (1851-57) for six years. He cially as regards public health and state was physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary medicine, and was accordingly looked (1824-57) aRd as regius professor gave upon as a visionary by some who had clinical instruction there to “an occa- not his foresight. Educated at Harrow, sional pupil”; he was evidently willing being then destined by his father for and indeed made some preparations for medicine, at Christ Church, becoming this purpose, but there were very few a fellow of All Souls in 1840, he studied students to be taught. He became a fel- medicine in London and Edinburgh. low of the Royal College of Physicians 111 health, however, necessitated a good of London, in 1822, and delivered the deal of foreign travel in his youth. In Harveian Oration in 1844, which. like 1845 he was offered the Lee’s reader- Kidd and unlike Pegge, he printed. His ship in anatomy at Christ Church; but only other known publication was “A on considering the position of science at Letter to the Reverend the Warden of Oxford, especially in the light of C. G. Wadham College on the System of Edu- Carus’ damning criticism of the anatom- cation pursued at Oxford, with Sugges- ical department in Kidd’s time (1844) , tions for remodelling the Examination namely that it resembled that of Vesalius Statutes.”10 He was elected a fellow of three hundred years earlier, Acland felt the Royal Society on February 2, 1826. that he might be embarking on a des- He tried, with Kidd, but without suc- perate or hopeless undertaking and ac- cess to improve the conditions of science cordingly consulted his Edinburgh and medicine in Oxford. The third of teachers, W. P. Alison (1790-1859) and his four sons, William Ogle (1827- John Goodsir (1814-67) whether he 1912), was assistant physician (1867-72) should immediately resign or attempt to St. George’s Hospital, superintend- the task of establishing biological study ent of statistics to the Registrar-gener- in Oxford on such a basis that it must be al’s office and translator of Aristotle’s lasting, and would to some extent be “De Partibus Animalium,”11 a second worthy of a national university. This he edition of which was published in 1911. started out to do on the lines of the Hun- J. W. Ogle (1824-1905), also of Trinity terian Museum, and eventually carried College, Oxford, and afterwards physi- through in the face of powerful opposi- cian to St. George’s Hospital and father tion. Like John Parsons, the first Lee’s of Cyril Ogle (1861-1931), alsoof Trin- reader, Acland was appointed before he ity College and physician to St. George’s had passed the examination for the b .m . Hospital (1904-26), took the degree of degree, and was examined by two pro- doctor of medicine (d .m.) during his fessors, Ogle and Daubeny, who had pre- 10 Oxon., 1841. viously attended his lectures, and W. A. 11 London, 1882. Greenhill (1814-94) who, forty-four years later. in 1890. when Acland re- a complete medical school. The debt ferred to this in his pamphlet “Oxford that Oxford owes to him has been some- and Modern Medicine,” explained away what forgotten, if indeed it was ever what might appear the anomaly of a lec- properly recognized, for he did not es- turer beingexamined by his own pupils. cape hostile criticism. The second Royal When appointed in 1857 to the regius Commission appointed in 1877 received professorship, which he held till 1894, a considerable body of evidence, espe- he found the medical faculty as dead as cially from Sir Edwin Ray Lankester. when Kidd was elected thirty-five years This was followed by the campaign, earlier. He exerted himself in all direc- started by “A Member of Convocation” tions, and indeed was well equipped to behind the breastplate of anonymity, attract help in making the teaching of entitled “A lost Medical School” in the natural science and medicine worthy of British Medical Journal12 beginning the University. In this very difficult task January 5, 1878, in which the regius pro- he made much headway, especially in fessor of medicine was severely attacked the erection of the University Museum for absorbing the fees for the regius, the and in preparing the way for the great Aldrich, and Lichfield chairs of med- expansion of science teaching which has icine and not lecturing. What was prac- since taken place. With the outlook of a tically Acland's Apologia did not appear humanist he advocated a broad educa- until 1890 in the form of a letter to, as a tion for medical men, opposed the tend- representative Oxford graduate, Dr. ency to specialize early, thus repeating James Andrew (1829-97) > senior physi- the advice Sir Benjamin Brodie (1783- cian to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, 1862) had given about his own train- “Oxford and Modern Medicine,” which ing, and laid it down that the clinical was rather widely, but privately, circu- facilities available at Oxford were not lated. sufficient to justify the establishment of 12 Vol. 1130; 94, 1878.

Ref er en ce s Acl and , H. W. Oxford and Modern Medi- Gunthe r , R. T. Early Science in Oxford. cine. Oxford, 1890. Oxford, 1925, 3:117. Atlay , J. B. Sir Henry Wentworth Acland. Hollan d . Further Memoirs of the Wig London, 1903. Party, 1807-1821. Quoted by Gunther. Cox, G. V. Recollections of Oxford. Lond., Mall et , C. E. A History of the University 1870, p. 141. of Oxford. Lond., 1927, 3:22. Fult on , J. Bull. New York Acad. Med., 2s. Nias , J. B. Dr. John Radcliffe: A Sketch of 10:486, 1934. his Life with an Account of his Fellows Gibs on , A. G. The Radcliffe Infirmary. and Foundations. Oxford, Clarendon Lond., Oxford Univ. Press, 1926. Press, 1918. Green hil l , W. A. Letter dated June 7, 1890, Tre vel yan , G. M. History of England. to the Oxford University Herald. I.ond., 1929, p. 521.