kids encyclopedia robot

Jonathan Hutchinson facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Jonathan Hutchinson
Jonathan Hutchinson 2.jpg
Sir Jonathan Hutchinson
Born 23 July 1828
Selby, Yorkshire, England
Died 13 June 1913(1913-06-13) (aged 84)
Haslemere, Surrey, England
Nationality British
Known for First physician to describe Progeria
Scientific career
Fields Surgeon,
ophthalmologist, dermatologist
venereologist
pathologist

Sir Jonathan Hutchinson (23 July 1828 – 23 June 1913), was an English surgeon, ophthalmologist, dermatologist, venereologist, and pathologist.

Jonathan Hutchinson by Spy
Caricature for Vanity Fair by Spy

Life

He was born in Selby, Yorkshire, of Quaker parents and educated in the local school. Then he was apprenticed for five years to Caleb Williams, an apothecary and surgeon in York.

He entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1850 (and a fellow in 1862), and rapidly gained reputation as a skillful operator and a scientific inquirer. While a student, Hutchinson chose a career in surgery from 1854 on, under the influence and help of his mentor, Sir James Paget (1814–99). In 1851, he studied ophthalmology at Moorfields and practised it at London Ophthalmic Hospital. Other hospitals where he practised in the following years were the Lock Hospital, the City of London Chest Hospital, the London Hospital, the Metropolitan Hospitals, and the Blackfriars Hospital for Diseases of the Skin.

His intense activity in so many medical specialties reflected also in his involvement with several medical societies. He was president of the Hunterian Society in 1869 and 1870, professor of surgery and pathology at the Royal College of Surgeons from 1877 to 1882, president of the Pathological Society (1879–80), of the Ophthalmological Society (1883), of the Neurological Society (1887) of the Medical Society (1890), and of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society from 1894 to 1896. In 1889, he was president of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was a member of two royal commissions, that of 1881 to inquire into the provision for smallpox and fever cases in the London hospitals, and that of 1889–96 on vaccination and leprosy. He also acted as honorary secretary to the Sydenham Society. In June 1882 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

He was the first orator at the York Medical Society.

Hutchinson is considered the father of oral medicine by some.

Works

Jonathan Hutchinson 15 Cavendish Square blue plaque
Blue plaque, 15 Cavendish Square, London

Hutchinson's activity in the cause of scientific surgery and in advancing the study of the natural sciences was unwearying. He published more than 1,200 medical articles and also produced the quarterly Archives of Surgery from 1890 to 1900, being its only contributor. His lectures on neuropathogenesis, gout, leprosy, diseases of the tongue, etc., were full of original observation.

He was the founder of the Medical Graduates’ College and Polyclinic; and both in his native town of Selby and at Haslemere, Surrey, he started (about 1890) educational museums for popular instruction in natural history. He published several volumes on his own subjects and was given an Hon. LL.D degree by both the University of Glasgow and University of Cambridge. He received a knighthood in 1908.

Hutchinson has his name attached to a number of entities in medicine, incliding Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome.

After his retirement from active consultative work, he continued to take great interest in the question of leprosy. In one of his few scientific errors, he was firmly convinced that a link existed between getting leprosy and eating salted or rotted fish, even after the pathogenic agent, Mycobacterium leprae, was discovered in 1873.

Personal life

Hutchinson married Jane Pynsent West in 1856 and they had six sons and four daughters. His son Jonathan (1859–1933) became an ophthalmic surgeon and was elected F.R.C.S. in 1884. He founded Haslemere Educational Museum in 1888. The teacher, writer, and naturalist Margaret Hutchinson was his granddaughter. Hutchinson died on 23 June 1913, in Haslemere, Surrey.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Jonathan Hutchinson para niños

kids search engine
Jonathan Hutchinson Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.