William Sharpey

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William Sharpey
Born1 April 1802
Arbroath, Scotland
Died11 April 1880

William Sharpey

FRSE LLD (1 April 1802 – 11 April 1880) was a Scottish anatomist and physiologist. Sharpey became the outstanding exponent of experimental biology[1] and is described as the "father of British physiology
".

Early life

Sharpey was born in Arbroath on 1 April 1802, the youngest son of the five children Mary Balfour and Henry Sharpy (sic), a shipowner from Folkestone who died before Sharpey was born.[2]

William was educated at the high school in Arbroath and, in November 1817, began studies at the University of Edinburgh, firstly studying humanities and natural philosophy.[3] In 1818, he moved to the medical classes, learning anatomy from Professor John Barclay, who then was lecturing in the extra-academical school.[2]

In 1821, Sharpey graduated with an MB ChB and was admitted a member of the

Hôtel Dieu, and operative surgery from Jacques Lisfranc de St. Martin. Here he made the acquaintance of James Syme, with whom he kept up a correspondence until Syme's death in 1870.[2]

In August 1823, Sharpey was awarded his doctorate (MD) from the University of Edinburgh, with his thesis De Ventriculi Carcinomate, and then returned to Paris, where he spent most of 1824. He then appears to have settled for a time in Arbroath, where he began to practise under his step-father, Dr Arrott; but he then set out on a long hike in Europe, by foot through France to Switzerland, and on to Italy. In 1828, he stayed at Padua to work under Bartolomeo Panizza. He was then in Berlin for nine months working under Karl Rudolphi, and after that was at Heidelberg under Friedrich Tiedemann, and at Vienna.[2]

Academic career

William Sharpey in 1855

Sharpey established himself in Edinburgh in 1829, and in the following year he obtained the fellowship of the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, presenting a probationary essay On the Pathology and Treatment of False Joints. The diploma of fellow qualified him to become a teacher in Edinburgh; but in 1831 he again spent three months in Berlin. In 1831–1832, with Allen Thomson, who taught physiology, he gave a first course of lectures on systematic anatomy in the Extramural School of Medicine in Edinburgh. The association of Sharpey with Thomson lasted during the remainder of Sharpey's stay in Edinburgh. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1834, his proposer being Sir Robert Christison.[2] At this time he lived at 3 Alva Street in Edinburgh's West End.[4] In 1835 he was elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh.[5][6]

In July 1836 Sharpey was appointed to the chair of anatomy and physiology in the

Hunterian Museum in Glasgow
.

In 1859 he received the honorary doctorate (LLD) for his literary works from the University of Edinburgh.

His pupils included

Burdon Sanderson.[2]

Sharpey was a correspondent and friend of

Geological Society
.

Later life

Troubled by failure of his eyesight, about 1871 Sharpey retired from the post of secretary of the Royal Society, and in 1874 from his professorship at University College. In 1874 he received a

Civil Service
pension from the government.

He died of bronchitis at 50 Torrington Square, London, on Sunday, 11 April 1880. He was buried with his parents in the graveyard of Arbroath Abbey.[2]

Family

He was half-brother to James Arrott, head physician at Dundee Royal Infirmary.[citation needed]

Eponyms

  • lamellae of bone and anchor bone to tendon (W. Sharpey, 1846).[7]

Bibliography

Wikisource has original works by or about:
William Sharpey

From 1829 to 1836 Sharpey was engaged in scientific work, of which the earliest outcome was his paper on

ciliary motion, published in 1830. He contributed to the many editions of Quain's Anatomy. His works included:[2]

  • De Ventriculi Carcinomate, Edinburgh, 1823.
  • A Probationary Essay on the Pathology and Treatment of False Joints, Edinburgh, 1830.
  • On a Peculiar Motion excited in Fluids of the Surfaces of Certain Animals (
    Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal
    , 1830, xxxiv. 113).
  • Remarks on a supposed Spontaneous Motion of the Blood (Edinburgh Journal of Nat. and Geographical Science, 1831).
  • An Account of Professor Ehrenberg's Researches on the Infusoria (Edinburgh Nat. Philosophical Journal, 1833, vol. xv.).
  • 'Account of the Discovery by Purkinje and Valentin of Ciliary Motions in Reptiles and Warm-blooded Animals, with Remarks and Additional Experiments' (Edinburgh Nat. Philosophical Journal, 1830, vol. xix.)

The information in the last two articles is also in his contribution on "Cilia" to Robert Bentley Todd and William Bowman's Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology (1836); Sharpey also wrote the article "Echinodermata" in this work. He edited the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth editions of Jones Quain's Elements of Anatomy; and contributed to William Baly's translation of Johannes Peter Müller's Physiology, 1837 and 1840.[2]

References

  1. PMID 17787285
    . Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Sharpey, William" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  3. PMID 4932882
    .
  4. ^ Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1833
  5. ^ Minute Books of the Harveian Society. Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
  6. ^ Watson Wemyss, Herbert Lindesay (1933). A Record of the Edinburgh Harveian Society. T&A Constable, Edinburgh.
  7. Dorland's Medical Dictionary
    , 1938

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Sharpey, William". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

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