John Lockhart-Mummery

John Percy Lockhart-Mummery FRCS (14 February 1875 – 24 April 1957), was a British surgeon at St Mark's Hospital, London, who devised a classification of rectal cancer and described familial polyposis which led to the formation of the polyposis registry. He was the author of several books, including ''Diseases of the Rectum and Colon and their Surgical Treatment'' (1923), ''The Origin of Cancer'' (1934), and '' After Us, or the World as it Might Be'' (1936). His work on colorectal surgery earned him the nickname "King Rectum".

Lockhart-Mummery's grandfather, his brother, and his father, John Howard Mummery, were all dental surgeons. While studying at Cambridge he developed sarcoma of his leg, for which Joseph Lister carried out an amputation. He completed his clinical training in 1899 at St George's Hospital, London, and in 1904 was appointed Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons. He showed that sigmoidoscopy was safe and effective in looking for diseases of the large bowel. During the First World War he operated at King Edward VII's Hospital Sister Agnes, where he treated mainly gunshot wounds affecting the colon, rectum and anus.

Lockhart-Mummery was the first secretary of the British Proctological Society, which in 1939, became a section of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM). Some of his theories on cancer and eugenics are controversial, and were thought of as radical at that time, even by his friend Lord Horder, president of the Eugenics Society. He was also a friend of H. G. Wells, with whom he shared some beliefs about the role of science in the problems of the human body.

Early life and education

John Lockhart Mummery (later Lockhart-Mummery), was born in Islip Manor, Northolt, on 14 February 1875 to John Howard Mummery, a dental surgeon, and his first wife Mary Lily. His paternal grandfather was a dental surgeon, and his younger brother, Stanley, also became a dental surgeon.

He was educated first at Eagle House School and then The Leys School.Venn, J. A., comp.. Alumni Cantabrigienses. London, England: Cambridge University Press, 1922-1954. Via www.ancestry.co.uk Subsequently, he gained admission to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, passing the first part of the Natural Sciences Tripos in 1897 with second-class honours. During his time at Cambridge he developed sarcoma of his leg, for which Joseph Lister carried out an amputation. Subsequently, he took up a post as assistant anatomy demonstrator at Cambridge. He completed his clinical training in 1899 at St George's Hospital, London, where he won the Thompson gold medal and completed resident posts there. In 1900 he gained a Fellowship.

Early career

Lockhart-Mummery worked at the North Eastern Hospital for Children at Hackney and at the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers. In 1903 he was appointed to the staff of St Mark's Hospital, London. The following year he was Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons, where he spoke on the physiology and treatment of surgical shock and collapse, drawing on his book ''After-treatment of Operations'' (1903), which ran into four editions and was translated into a number of languages including Arabic.

In 1904 he revealed improvements in sigmoidoscopy, and subsequently showed it was safe and effective in looking for diseases of the large bowel. He won the Jacksonian Prize for 1909 for his essay on diseases of the colon, which he published in 1910 as ''Diseases of the Colon and their Surgical Treatment'' and later combined with ''Diseases of the Rectum and Anus: A practical handbook'' (1914) to produce ''Diseases of the Rectum and Colon and their Surgical Treatment'' (1923). It was published by Baillière, Tindall & Cox and a second edition was produced in 1934.

In 1913, upon Swinford Edwards' retirement, Lockhart-Mummery became senior surgeon at St Mark's. The following year and a few days before the start of the First World War, Sister Agnes of King Edward VII Hospital for Officers, drew up a list of 21 honorary staff to treat wounded officers at 9 Grosvenor Gardens without a fee. Lockhart-Mummery became a significant name on the list, probably carried out more operations at the hospital than any other surgeon there, and treated mainly gunshot wounds affecting the colon, rectum and anus.Hough, 1998, pp. 45–56. Among officers he treated was Major Horace Sewell, who had been injured in May 1915 and required shell casing removing from the thigh.Hough, 1998, p. 60. When Leonard Tyrwhitt was wounded by a Mauser bullet above his left knee, it was Lockhart-Mummery who removed it. On Armistice Day, he operated twice.Hough, 1998, p. 74. His work on colorectal surgery earned him the nickname "King Rectum".

Later career

Despite operating on the most rich and famous of London of the time, operating on the colon, rectum and anus was not fashionable to discuss. In 1924 he started the Polyposis Registry with Cuthbert Dukes, which kept data on people with inherited multiple polyps. In 1925 his systematic study of people and their families demonstrated a genetic explanation for the association between people with multiple bowel polyps and bowel cancer, 20 years after polyposis was first suggested to be a familial condition by William Harrison Cripps of St Bartholomew's Hospital. Lockhart-Mummery was a co-founder and key figure in the 1923 British Empire Cancer Campaign, in which he remained active for the rest of his life and which slanted more clinically than the rival scientific Imperial Cancer Research Fund, who had their own significant figures including Walter Morley Fletcher and Frederick Gowland Hopkins.

He believed that pruritus ani had a local cause and not a general cause as believed by others such as Lord Horder. In 1939 he described rectal prolapse in children. He also practised in Harley Street

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