BRODIE, Sir Benjamin Collins, (1783-1862)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0406 Brodie
Held at	: St George's Hospital   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.stgeorges.nhs.uk/ ›
Full title	: BRODIE, Sir Benjamin Collins, (1783-1862)
Date(s)	: 18th century-1934
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 53 volumes
Name of creator(s)	: Brodie, Sir Benjamin Collins, 1783-1862, 1st Baronet, surgeon

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie (1783-1862) attended anatomical lectures of John Abernathy at St Bartholomew's Hospital and James Wilson at the Hunterian School of Anatomy, Great Windmill Street, London, 1801-1802; joint secretary of the 'Academical Society'; entered St George's Hospital as a pupil under Sir Everard Home, 1803; appointed House Surgeon, 1805; demonstrator to the School of Anatomy, 1805-1812; assisted Home in his private operations, and in his researches on comparative anatomy; elected Assistant Surgeon to St George's, 1808, and held this appointment for fourteen years; entered upon private practice, Sackville Street, London, 1809; moved practice to Savile Row, 1819; appointed Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, Royal College of Surgeons, 1819; appointed Sergeant-Surgeon to the King, 1832; acquired premises at Kinnerton Street for the anatomical theatre, museum and lecture rooms for St George's Hospital Medical School; created Baronet, 1834; examiner and member of Council, Royal College of Surgeons; introduced Fellowship examination, 1843; appointed President of the Royal College of Surgeons, 1844; elected President of the Royal Society, 1858; elected first President of the General Medical Council, 1858; resigned Presidency of Royal Society due to failing eyesight, 1861; published 'Psychological Inquiries,', 1854 and 1862.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of or relating to Sir Benjamin Brodie comprising case notes taken by Brodie as House Surgeon at St George's Hospital, 1805-1851, and include details of experiments on guinea pigs, 1817-1826 and notes of lectures on madness delivered by Dr Sutherland at St Luke's Hospital, 1851; surgical cases and commentaries by Brodie, 1805-1807 (2 volumes); hospital notes, 1813-1816; case books, 1821-1834, including letter from Mrs Marion Warren Harries, St Thomas' Rectory, Haverfordwest, requesting new prescription for her throat, 29 Dec 1840; case notes, 1824-1827; note book containing extracts from Wallace Dublin on venereal disease, 1833, and case notes 1827-1828; case notes, 1849; case notes, 1839-1854 (3 volumes); case notes, 1829-1830, 1838-1839, 1854 (4 volumes); case notes of Hugh Rowen, 73 Henry Street, 1815; case book, 1820-1860. Lectures and related notes, comprising 'An essay on the principles of science', read to the Academical Society, 1802; 'Analysis of the principal memoirs of the French Academy of Surgery', 1808; 'An introduction to comparative anatomy and physiology', introductory lectures delivered at the Royal College of Surgeon, 1816; introductory lecture of anatomy and physiology, 1820; notes of lectures on anatomy, 1820; notes of lectures delivered by Brodie, taken by Gregory Smith, 1827 (4 volumes); notes of lectures delivered by Brodie, taken by Henry Johnson, 1830; notebook containing: 42 lectures, undated, lecturers name not given, including clinical lectures by Brodie, 1839-1840; introductory discourse to the students of St George's, 1843, including testimonial given by Brodie to Dr Morson, 12 Dec 1834; 'Psychologia', 1851; physiological experiments and observations, 1810-1817; selections from notes of Brodie's physiological experiments and observations, 1812-1826; notes of lectures on the practice of medicine, 1816; notes of symptoms, 18th-19th centuries; commonplace book, undated. Other material, comprising notes of anatomical lectures delivered by Thomas Tatum and Henry James Johnson, taken by John Morgan, School of Anatomy, Kinnerton Street, 1837-1839; notes of lectures on structural anatomy and physiology delivered at the Hunterian School of Medicine by William Vesalius Pettigrew, 1840-1846; copy of an address presented by the students of St George's to G G Babington on his retirement as Surgeon to St George's, with his reply, 1843; testimonial presented to George D Pollock, on his retirement as Consulting Surgeon to St George's, 1882; notes taken by Dr Charles Slater while attending a course in bacteriology at the Pasteur Institute, 1893; case notes of Dr Marriott Fawckner Nicholls, 1933-1934.

Note: this collection is currently on loan to the Royal College of Surgeons.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The case notes at St George's 1805-1851 are arranged in seven volumes, each in alphabetical order, with an index. The remaining case notes are either single volumes or arranged in smaller series as given in the scope and content.

Conditions governing access:

Researchers are requested to contact the archivist for an appointment. Certain records (e.g. patient's clinical notes, post-mortem registers etc) may be closed for 100 years after creation.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies and photographs of original material may be supplied, subject to the physical state of the material concerned. Due acknowledgement to St George's Hospital and St George's Hospital Medical School should be given for original material subsequently reproduced or published.

Finding aids:

Catalogued on database at St George's Hospital Library Special Collections and available on online finding aid.

Archival Information

Archival history:

The testimonial to Dr Morson has a covering letter from the House Governor to the Dean of St George's, 13 Oct, 1853, stating that it came from Dr Morson's granddaughter Grace Hughes. The lectures noted by John Morgan were presented to St George's Hospital Library by Morgan's grandson, J H B Beal in May 1935. The testimonial to George D Pollock was presented by Sir Ronald Pollock in Oct 1967.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Not given.

Allied Materials

Related material:

St George's Library Special Collections also hold several printed works by Brodie and contemporaries.

Papers of Brodie are also held by Royal College of Surgeons of England (Ref: NRA 9621); Royal College of Physicians (NRA 9520); Radcliffe Science Library, Oxford University (Ref: MS ZB 14); Bodleian Library, Oxford University (Ref: MSS Acland); British Library Manuscript Collections Refs: Add MSS 37188-98, 40390-601; Royal Society (Refs: HS, LUB); Beinecke Library, Yale University (Ref: Osborn); Royal Institution of Great Britain (Ref: NRA 18112 Sharpey); Cambridge University Library (Ref: Add 7342, 7656); University of Leicester Library (Ref: MS 212). See National Register of Archives for further details.

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Robert Baxter as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project. Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Note: this collection is currently on loan to the Royal College of Surgeons.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Jul 2002