3-009-015 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, Bart., Serjeant-Surgeon to the Queen, etc., 1862. 'On passing as a surgeon in 1805, Brodie became an assistant to Sir Everard Home, and gave lectures on anatomy at St. George's Hospital...Brodie was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Surgery in the Royal College of Surgeons in 1819...He was in surgical attendance on George IV. in his last illness, and he was, in 1832, appointed Serjeant-Surgeon to King William IV...He was subsequently appointed Surgeon to the Prince Consort, and Serjeant-Surgeon to her present Majesty [Queen Victoria]...The practice of Sir Benjamin Brodie had during all these years become so enormous that his whole existence may be said to have been employed in the removal or alleviation of human suffering. He was, too, a most highminded and generous practitioner, and was ever as ready to serve the poor who could not pay him as the rich who did. Sir Benjamin's written contributions to medical science wero extremely numerous. His "Hunterian Oration" of 1837 was greatly admired. One of his last essays was on tobacco-smoking, touching which he gave a moderate opinion, though insisting that with young persons it led to neuralgia and amaurosis [vision loss or weakness]'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.