MEDALLION, ST THOMAS'S HOSPITAL/ WILLIAM CHESELDEN
Production date
1805-1855 0
Production organisations
W. WYON
Labels
William Cheselden, who is depicted on this medal, was an influential English surgeon and anatomy teacher born in 1688. He became a member of the London Company of Barber-Surgeons in 1711, which would later become the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He published his most famous work in 1713, Anatomy of the Human Body, which became popular reading for all medical students in Britian. Many of Cheselden’s anatomical ideas were co-opted and expanded upon by Benjamin Hobson, who through medical missions in Asia helped to revolutionise medical practices in China and Japan.
During his time as a surgeon at St Thomas’ Hospital, St George’s, and at the Westminster Infirmary, Cheselden developed new techniques in performing eye surgery, mainly in the removal of cataracts. In fact, Cheselden is often credited with the first published surgical recovery from blindness in 1728, through performing lens removal on a blind thirteen-year-old boy with congenital cataracts. The philosopher George Berkeley stated that his theories on vision were proved by Cheselden’s report on the operation, although this gives rise to doubts about the authenticity of the report and its results. It is believed that Berkeley had many social connections with Cheselden as well as the patient. The report also used language that was very similar to Berkeley’s writing style, and it is possible that it was even ghost-written by Berkeley himself. There is also no certifiable proof that the patient, Daniel Dolins, even had their vision improved by the procedure prior to their death seventeen years later.
Alexander Walker, Hidden Histories project participant
