James Syme
James Syme | |
---|---|
Edinburgh, Scotland | |
Died | 26 June 1870 (aged 70) Millbank House, Kingsknowe , Edinburgh, Scotland |
Occupation | Surgeon |
James Syme
Early life
James Syme was born on 7 November 1799 at 56
James was educated at the
In the dissecting room
In the session 1818–1819 Syme became assistant and demonstrator of the dissecting room of Robert Liston, who had started as an extramural teacher of anatomy in competition with Liston's old master, John Barclay; in those years he held also resident appointments in the infirmary and the fever hospital, and spent some time in Paris practising dissection and operative surgery. In 1823 Liston handed over to him the whole charge of his anatomy classes, retaining his interest in the school as a pecuniary venture; the arrangement did not work smoothly, and a feud with Liston arose, which did not terminate until twenty years later, when Liston was settled in London.[3]
Clinical teaching
In 1824–25, he founded the Brown Square School of Medicine, but again disagreed with his partners in the venture. Announcing his intention to practise surgery only after being unable to fill a vacancy at
He worked there from May 1829 to September 1833, with great success as a surgical charity and school of clinical instruction. It was here that he first put into practice his method of clinical teaching, which consisted in having the patients to be operated or prelected upon brought from the ward into a lecture-room or theatre where the students were seated conveniently for seeing and taking notes.[3]
His private practice had become very considerable, his position having been assured ever since his
University College, London
In 1847, Syme was accepted the chair of clinical surgery at
Medical reform
In 1849, he broached the subject of medical reform in a letter to the lord advocate; in 1854 and 1857 he addressed open letters on the same subject to
In the 1860s he acted as a surgeon at Leith Hospital.[8]
Death
In April 1869, he had a paralytic seizure, and at once resigned his chair; he never recovered his powers, and died near Edinburgh in June 1870.[3] He was a Christian whose religious feeling increased as he grew older.[9]
Syme is buried on the upper north-east terrace of
Syme's character is not inaptly summed up in the dedication to him by his old pupil, John Brown, of the series of essays Locke and Sydenham: Verax, capax, perspicax, sagax, efficax, tenax.[3]
Family
Syme married twice. Firstly he married Anne Willis,[10] the sister of his former colleague, Robert Willis. She died in 1840, while giving birth to their ninth child. Only two of their nine children, daughters Agnes and Lucy, survived into adulthood.[10]
In December 1841, Syme married Jemima Burn. The couple had five children, three of whom survived into adulthood.[11]
In 1856, Syme's daughter Agnes married
Bibliography
Syme's surgical writings were numerous, although the terseness of his style and directness of his method saved them from being bulky:[3]
- A Treatise on the Excision of Diseased Joints (1831)—the celebrated ankle-joint amputationis known by his name
- Principles of Surgery (1831 often reprinted)
- Diseases of the Rectum (1838);
- Contributions to the Pathology and Practice of Surgery (1848)—a collection of thirty-one original memoirs published in periodicals from time to time
- Stricture of the Urethra and Fistula in Pei-ineo (1849)
- Observations in Clinical Surgery (1861)
- Excision of the Scapula (1864)
References
- ^ "Syme, James (1799 - 1870)". Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows. London: The Royal College of Surgeons of England. 11 April 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
- ^ Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1808
- ^ a b c d e f g h i public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Syme, James". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 285. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- OCLC 2595463.
- ^ Minute Books of the Harveian Society. Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
- ^ Watson Wemyss, Herbert Lindesay (1933). A Record of the Edinburgh Harveian Society. T&A Constable, Edinburgh.
- ^ Minute Books of the Aesculapian Club. Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
- ISBN 0-7073-0584-5
- ^ Robert Paterson (1874). Memorials of the life of James Syme, professor of clinical surgery in the University of Edinburgh. Edmonston and Douglas. pp. 286-287. Library of Congress Claffification: R489.S9 P3
- ^ OCLC 1045628715
- )
Further reading
- Memorials of the Life of James Syme, by R. Paterson, M.D., with portraits (Edinburgh, 1874)