Sharpey and Quain Medical Lecture Notes

Scope and Content

Student notebooks giving diagrams and notes for lectures on anatomy and physiology delivered by William Sharpey and Richard Quain.

Administrative / Biographical History

William Sharpey: entered Edinburgh University to study the humanities and natural philosophy, 1817; commenced medical studies, 1818; admitted as amember of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons, 1821; graduated MD of Edinburgh, 1823; obtained the Fellowship of the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 1830; elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1834; appointed to the Chair of Anatomy and Physiology at University College London, 1836; elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, 1839; appointed an Examiner in Anatomy at London University, 1840; a member of the Council of the Royal Society, 1844; appointed Secretary of the Royal Society in place of Thomas Bell, 1853; for 15 years from 1861, one of the members appointed by the Crown on the General Council of Medical Education and Registration; retired as Secretary due to failure of eyesight, 1871; died frombronchitis in London, 1880; buried at Arbroath.

Richard Quain: born at Fermoy, county Cork, Ireland, 1800; received his early education at Adair's school at Fermoy; served an apprenticeship to a surgeon in Ireland; went to London to pursue his professional studies at the Aldersgate school of medicine; went to Paris, where he attended the lectures of Richard Bennett, a private lecturer on anatomy and a friend of his father; when Bennett was appointed a demonstrator of anatomy in the newly constituted school of the University of London (later University College London), Quain assisted him, 1828; admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS), 1828; on Bennet's death, Quain became senior demonstrator of anatomy, 1830; Professor of descriptive anatomy,1832-1850; appointed the first assistant surgeon to University College (or the North London) Hospital (UCH), 1834; selected Fellow when the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons was established by royal charter and admitted, 1843; elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, 1844; succeeded as full surgeon and special professor of clinical surgery, UCH, 1848; became a member of the council of the RCS, 1854; a member of the RCS court of examiners, 1865; resigned his post at UCH, 1866; appointed consulting surgeon to the hospital and Emeritus Professor of clinical surgery in its medical school; chairman of the RCS board of examiners in midwifery, 1867; elected President of the RCS, 1868; delivered the Hunterian oration, RCS, 1869; represented the RCS in the General Council of Education and Registration, 1870-1876; at his death, one of Queen Victoria's surgeons-extraordinary; died, 1887; buried at Finchley; left the bulk of his fortune, c£75,000, for promoting, in connection with University College London, general education in modern languages (especially English) and in natural science; the Quain professorship of English language and literature and the Quain studentships and prizes were founded accordingly. Publications: edited his brother Jones Quain's 'Elements of Anatomy' (1848); 'The Anatomy of the Arteries of the Human Body, with its Applications to Pathology and Operative Surgery, in Lithographic Drawings with Practical Commentaries' (London, 1844); 'The Diseases of the Rectum' (London, 1854); 'Clinical Lectures' (London, 1884).

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