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LISTON, ROBERT, F.R.S.—This
great medical teacher and practitioner was born on the 28th of
October, 1794, and was son of the Rev. Henry Liston, minister of
Ecclesmachen, Linlithgowshire. After having finished his course of classical
and professional education, he, at the termination of the latter, practised
as ordinary house-surgeon in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. It speaks
much for his professional attainments at this period—for he was only at the
age of twenty-one—that he perceived the defects that prevailed in the
management of that institution; and not a little for his courage as well as
disinterestedness, that he set himself in earnest to reform them. Like most
of those daring young geniuses, however, who look too exclusively to the
good end in view, and are satisfied with the rectitude of their own motives,
he pursued his plan of reform with such ardour as to waken the wrath of the
directors, who were little disposed to be taught that they were in the wrong
by such a juvenile instructor. Liston, however, persevered, while his
growing reputation coming to his aid, at length gave his representations
such weight, that, when his connection with the Infirmary terminated, a full
acknowledgement of the important services he had rendered was entered upon
its records. In 1817, Mr. Liston became a graduate of the Royal Colleges of
Surgeons of Edinburgh and London, and commenced practice in the former city,
where his reputation as a surgical operator grew yearly, until he attained
that pre-eminence which left him without a rival. For this department,
indeed, he was admirably fitted by nature; for independently of his acquired
skill, he possessed a decision of will, firmness of nerve, strength of
muscle, and quickness of eye, which qualified him for successful operations,
where many of his gentler or less prompt and active brethren would have
failed. But with all this, he was neither a rash experimenter nor merciless
practitioner: on the contrary, he not only performed boldly and skilfully
what was necessary, but stopped short where danger was to be apprehended.
His manner, also, combined such gentleness with firmness, as secured the
confidence and esteem of his patients. In addition to his practice, he
delivered lectures, first on anatomy, and afterwards on surgery, between the
years 1822 and 1834, which were highly valued and numerously attended.
Having thus won for himself a
high reputation both as practitioner and instructor, it was natural that Mr.
Liston should anticipate those professional honours which are so often
bestowed upon candidates of greatly inferior pretensions. His hopes were
directed to a professorship of surgery in the university of Edinburgh, which
no one in Scotland was better (if as well) qualified to fill, but as the
wished for vacancy did not occur, or was won by a more favoured competitor,
he formed a professorship for himself, with the world for his auditory, by
publishing, in 1833, his ‘Principles of Surgery,’ a work which he afterwards
repeatedly revised, and which went through several editions. Subsequently,
many of his lectures on various subjects, and especially on lithotomy, were
published in the "Lancet " Of the merits of these writings, which were
recognized at once by the whole medical profession, and which have spread
his fame though every medical school in Europe and America, it would
now be superfluous to speak, their scientific correctness and thorough
practical character, as well as the improvements which they have introduced
into practical surgery, are sufficient evidences of their worth.
Disappointed in his hopes of Edinburgh, and having fully tested his own
powers, Dr. Liston was now desirous of a wider field, which was opened to
him in 1834, by his being appointed surgeon to the North London Hospital. He
left the Scottish capital in the November of that year, and so fully was his
value now appreciated in Edinburgh, that before his departure a public
dinner was given to him, at which the Lord Provost presided, while the
addresses delivered on the occasion by the most eminent of the medical and
surgical professions, who attended, made eloquent acknowledgment of his high
talents and eminent services, as well as regret at their transference to
another sphere of action.
In London the fame of Dr.
Liston became so distinguished, that his private practice annually
increased, and the most difficult and critical operations were reserved for
his experienced hand. After having filled for some time the office of
surgeon to the North London Hospital, he was appointed professor of clinical
surgery in University College; and in 1840, in addition to that situation,
which he raised to honour and distinction, he was appointed one of the
examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons. In this way, notwithstanding a
certain bluntness of manner which he had preserved from the beginning, his
private worth, as well as professional knowledge, procured him not only the
highest distinction in his own country, but a world-wide reputation, which
as yet has suffered no abatement. Here, however, his career was unexpectedly
closed when it was at the brightest. After enjoying almost uninterrupted
good health till within a year of his death, he was attacked by a malady,
the causes of which his medical advisers could not ascertain, but which was
found, on a post mortem examination, to have been occasioned
by aneurism in the aorta. He died in Clifford Street, London, on the 7th of
December, 1847, at the age of fifty-three. |
