James Syme (7 November 1799 – 26 June 1870) was a Scottish pioneering surgeon.
Early life
James Syme was born on 7 November 1799 at 56
Princes Street
Princes Street () is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland and the main shopping street in the capital. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, Edinburgh, New Town, stretching around 1.2 km (three quar ...
in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
. His father was John Syme
WS of Cartmore and
Lochore
Lochore is a former mining village in Fife, Scotland. It takes its name from the nearby Loch Ore.
It is largely joined to the adjacent villages of Ballingry to the north and Crosshill to the south.
Education
Most of the children in Lochore go ...
, estates in
Fife
Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...
and
Kinross
Kinross (, ) is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, around south of Perth, Scotland, Perth and around northwest of Edinburgh. It is the traditional county town of the Counties of Scotland, historic county of Kinross-shire.
History
Kinro ...
. His father lost most of his fortune in attempting to develop the mineral resources of his property. His father had a legal practice at 23 North Hanover Street, not far from
Princes Street
Princes Street () is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland and the main shopping street in the capital. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, Edinburgh, New Town, stretching around 1.2 km (three quar ...
in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
.
James was educated at the
Royal High School at the age of nine, and remained until he was fifteen, when he entered the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
. For two years he frequented the arts classes (including botany), and in 1817 began the medical curriculum, devoting himself with particular keenness to
chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
. His chemical experiments led him to the discovery that a valuable substance is obtainable from
coal tar
Coal tar is a thick dark liquid which is a by-product of the production of coke and coal gas from coal. It is a type of creosote. It has both medical and industrial uses. Medicinally it is a topical medication applied to skin to treat psoria ...
which has the property of dissolving
india-rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds.
Types of polyisoprene ...
, and could be used for
waterproofing silk and other textile fabrics; an idea which was patented a few months afterwards by
Charles Macintosh
Charles Macintosh FRS (29 December 1766 – 25 July 1843) was a Scottish chemist and the inventor of the modern waterproof raincoat. The Mackintosh raincoat (the variant spelling is now standard) is named after him.
Biography
Macintosh was ...
, of
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
(see also
Mackintosh).
In the dissecting room
In the session 1818–1819 Syme became assistant and demonstrator of the dissecting room of
Robert Liston, who had started as an extramural teacher of anatomy in competition with Liston's old master,
John Barclay; in those years he held also resident appointments in the infirmary and the fever hospital, and spent some time in Paris practising dissection and operative surgery. In 1823 Liston handed over to him the whole charge of his anatomy classes, retaining his interest in the school as a pecuniary venture; the arrangement did not work smoothly, and a feud with Liston arose, which did not terminate until twenty years later, when Liston was settled in London.
Clinical teaching
In 1824–25, he founded the Brown Square School of Medicine, but again disagreed with his partners in the venture. Announcing his intention to practise surgery only after being unable to fill a vacancy at
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) was established in 1729, and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the Empire."In Comi ...
, Syme started a surgical hospital of his own,
Minto House hospital.
He worked there from May 1829 to September 1833, with great success as a surgical charity and school of clinical instruction. It was here that he first put into practice his method of clinical teaching, which consisted in having the patients to be operated or prelected upon brought from the ward into a lecture-room or theatre where the students were seated conveniently for seeing and taking notes.
His private practice had become very considerable, his position having been assured ever since his
amputation
Amputation is the removal of a Limb (anatomy), limb or other body part by Physical trauma, trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as cancer, malign ...
at the hip joint in 1823, the first operation of the kind in Scotland. In 1833 he succeeded
James Russell as professor of clinical surgery in
Edinburgh University
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and offi ...
. Syme's accession to the clinical chair was marked by two important changes in the conditions of it: the first was that the professor should have the care of surgical patients in the infirmary in right of his professorship, and the second, that attendance on his course should be obligatory on all candidates for the medical degree. When Liston removed to London in 1835 Syme became the leading consulting surgeon in Scotland.
In 1837 he was elected a member of the
Harveian Society of Edinburgh.
University College, London
In 1847, Syme was accepted the chair of clinical surgery at
University College, London
University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...
left vacant after Liston's death. He began practice in London in February 1848; but early in May the same year difficulties with two of his colleagues at
Gower Street and a desire to escape from animosity and contention led him to give up his appointment. He returned to Edinburgh in July, and was reinstated in his old chair, to which the crown authority had meanwhile found a difficulty in appointing. The judgment of his friends was that he was always right in the matter, but often wrong in the manner, of his quarrels.
In 1849 he was elected a member of the
Aesculapian Club. He was elected President of the
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1849.
Medical reform
In 1849, he broached the subject of medical reform in a letter to the lord advocate; in 1854 and 1857 he addressed open letters on the same subject to
Lord Palmerston
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A m ...
; and in 1858 a
Medical Act was passed which largely followed the lines laid down by himself. As a member of the general medical council called into existence by the act, he made considerable stir in 1868 by an uncompromising statement of doctrines on medical education, which were thought by many to be reactionary; they were, however, merely an attempt to recommend the methods that had been characteristic of Edinburgh teaching since
William Cullen's time—namely, a constant reference of facts to principles, the subordination (but not the sacrifice) of technical details to generalities, and the preference of large professional classes and the magnetism of numbers to the tutorial system, which he identified with cramming.
In the 1860s he acted as a surgeon at
Leith Hospital.
Death
In April 1869, he had a paralytic
seizure
A seizure is a sudden, brief disruption of brain activity caused by abnormal, excessive, or synchronous neuronal firing. Depending on the regions of the brain involved, seizures can lead to changes in movement, sensation, behavior, awareness, o ...
, and at once resigned his chair; he never recovered his powers, and died near
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
in June 1870.
He was a Christian whose religious feeling increased as he grew older.
Syme is buried on the upper north-east terrace of
St John's Episcopal Churchyard at the east end of
Princes Street
Princes Street () is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland and the main shopping street in the capital. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, Edinburgh, New Town, stretching around 1.2 km (three quar ...
, Edinburgh.
Syme's character is not inaptly summed up in the dedication to him by his old pupil,
John Brown, of the series of essays Locke and Sydenham: ''Verax, capax, perspicax, sagax, efficax, tenax''.
Family
Syme married twice. Firstly he married Anne Willis,
the sister of his former colleague,
Robert Willis. She died in 1840, while giving birth to their ninth child. Only two of their nine children, daughters
Agnes and Lucy, survived into adulthood.
In December 1841, Syme married Jemima Burn. The couple had five children, three of whom survived into adulthood.
In 1856, Syme's daughter Agnes married
Joseph Lister, who in 1854 had been appointed first assistant surgeon to Syme at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
. Having grown up as the eldest surviving child of a surgeon, Agnes Syme Lister often assisted her husband's medical research, including taking dictation and case notes.
They maintained a home laboratory, where Joseph Lister conducted experiments that would lead to the development of antiseptic sprays for surgical theatres.
Bibliography
Syme's surgical writings were numerous, although the terseness of his style and directness of his method saved them from being bulky:
* ''A Treatise on the Excision of Diseased Joints'' (1831)—the celebrated
ankle-joint amputation is known by his name
* ''Principles of Surgery'' (1831 often reprinted)
* ''Diseases of the Rectum'' (1838);
* ''Contributions to the Pathology and Practice of Surgery'' (1848)—a collection of thirty-one original memoirs published in periodicals from time to time
* ''Stricture of the Urethra and Fistula in Pei-ineo'' (1849)
* ''Observations in Clinical Surgery'' (1861)
* ''Excision of the Scapula'' (1864)
* On Lycanphropy 1871
References
Further reading
''Memorials of the Life of James Syme'' by R. Paterson, M.D., with portraits (Edinburgh, 1874)
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Syme, James
1799 births
1870 deaths
Medical doctors from Edinburgh
People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Scottish pathologists
Scottish surgeons
Academics of the University of Edinburgh
Academics of University College London
Presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Members of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh