Charles Collignon FRS (30 January 1725 – 1 October 1785) was a British surgeon and Cambridge's professor of anatomy.

Life

Collignon was born in 1725 to family who had come to Britain from France. He attended

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

where he became an M.D. in 1754. He is known for composing a tune called ''University'' which is traditionally used for

George Herbert George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) was an English poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognised as "one of the foremost British devotio ...

's hymn "The God of Love My Shepherd Is".The God of Love My Shepherd Is
, HymnTime, retrieved 11 November 2014 In 1753 Collignon became Cambridge's Professor of Anatomy. This was a role that he was peculiarly suited to: he was said to look like a skeleton because he was so thin. Another source indicates however that his body was bought from resurrectionists but his skeleton is still in Addenbrookes Hospital. Collignon had several children but only his daughter, Catherine Collignon, lived to adulthood. She was baptised in 1754. She is known because she made what was called a literal translation of a book called ''An Historical and Biographical Dictionary'' by Abbé Ladvocat.John D. Pickles, ‘Collignon, Catherine (bap. 1754, d. 1832)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 200
accessed 11 Nov 2014
/ref> In 1764 Collignon published an important work that summarised his understanding of anatomy. ''An Enquiry Into the Structure of the Human Body, Relative to Its Supposed Influence on the Morals of Mankind'' ran to 67 pages and it was published by Cambridge University. In 1766 he started his final career when he became a physician to Addenbrookes Hospital. In 1768 Collignon received a body for use in anatomy at Cambridge that turned out to be the body of the former celebrity novelist,

Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican cleric. He is best known for his comic novels ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'' (1759–1767) and ''A Sentimental Journey Thro ...

. According to one account Collignon recognised Sterne's body and he arranged for Sterne to have a second funeral despite Sterne's body being that of a pauper. Another source indicates however that his body was bought from resurrectionists but his skeleton is still in Addenbrookes Hospital. After he died in Cambridge in 1785, ''The Medical Works of Charles Collignon MD'' was published.Michael Bevan, ‘Collignon, Charles (1725–1785)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 11 Nov 2014
/ref> Collignon's daughter Catherine made a £1000 bequest to

Addenbrooke's Hospital Addenbrooke's Hospital is a large teaching hospital and research centre in Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county to ...

in Cambridge where her father had worked in 1832.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collignon, Charles 1725 births 1785 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British surgeons Place of birth missing Fellows of the Royal Society Professors of Anatomy (Cambridge)