Holbrow, Anthony: Admittance card for the lectures of John Abernethy

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0114 MS0217
Held at	: Royal College of Surgeons of England   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/archives/ ›
Full title	: Holbrow, Anthony: Admittance card for the lectures of John Abernethy
Date(s)	: 1817
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 item
Name of creator(s)	: Abernethy | John | 1764-1831 | surgeon

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

John Abernethy was born in Coleman Street, London, in 1764. He was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar school, and at the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to Charles Blicke, surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. Abernethy remained at Bart's for the rest of his career, being appointed assistant surgeon in 1787, and promted to full surgeon in 1815. During the 1790s Abernethy published several papers on a variety of anatomical topics. On the strength of these contributions he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1796. Between 1814 and 1817 he served as Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons. Abernethy also offered private lectures in anatomy in a house in Bartholomew Close, near to the hospital. The governors of Bart's then built a lecture theatre within the hospital to accommodate his classes. In 1824 Thomas Wakley, editor of the newly established journal The Lancet, published Abernethy's lectures without his permission. Abernethy sought an injunction but was unsuccessful, and remained resentful about the incident. Abernethy had himself attended the lectures of John Hunter, with whom he was also personally acquainted, and after Hunter's death he professed himself to be the spokesman for Hunter's physiological and pathological views. He died in 1831.

Anthony Holbrow studied at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and practised at Stonehouse, Gloucestershire. He became a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1818, MRCS in 1819, and FRCS in 1862. He died in 1873.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Anthony Holbrow, 1817, comprising an admittance card allowing Holbrow "unlimited attendance in the surgical lectures of John Abernethy", dated Oct 1817, signed by John Abernethy, and bearing a red wax seal.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

As outlined in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

By written appointment only.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No photocopying permitted.

Finding aids:

Additional manuscripts catalogue.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Donated by Dr David William Dawson of Darlington, in 1960.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Abernethy (MS0210); Notes of lectures by Abernethy by Peter Mere Latham (MS0211); William Cooke's notes of lectures by Abernethy and others (MS0212); Notes of Abernethy's lectures by Jacob Vale Asbury (MS0213); Autograph Letter from John Abernethy to Mr Mortimer (MS0214); Autograph Letter from John Abernethy to Mr Reece (MS0215); Autograph Letters from John Abernethy to the Royal College of Surgeons (MS0216); Notes on Surgical Lectures of Sir Everard Home and John Abernethy (MS0218); W Downes notes of John Abernethy's lectures on surgery (MS0053); Prosser-Harvey Collection containing notes of Abernethy's lectures (MS0081).

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.
Source: The Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Volume I - A-McDou, London: 1930, p551

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:
Sep 2008