"A host of experienced microscopists": The establishment of histology in nineteenth-century Edinburgh

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

Volumn 75, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 225-253

  Jacyna, L S ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Edinburgh; Histology; Medical education; Microscope; Pedagogy

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; EDUCATION; HISTOLOGY; HISTORY; HUMAN; MEDICAL EDUCATION; MICROSCOPY; UNITED KINGDOM;

EDUCATION, MEDICAL; HISTOLOGY; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HUMANS; MICROSCOPY; SCOTLAND;

EID: 0035377662     PISSN: 00075140     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (134)

1. I use the term "way of life" in Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer's sense as a "pattern of activity": Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), pp. 14-15.
2. On the history of the microscope and related technologies, see Reginald S. Clay, The History of the Microscope: Compiled from Original Instruments and Documents, up to the Introduction of the Achromatic Microscope (London: Holland Press, 1932); Savile Bradbury, The Microscope: Past and Present (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1968); Savile Bradbury and Gerard L'Estrange Turner, Historical Aspects of Microscopy (Cambridge: W. Heffer, 1967); Brian Bracegirdle, A History of Microtechnique: The Evolution of the Microtome and the Development of Tissue Preparation, 2d ed. (Lincolnwood, Ill.: Science Heritage, 1986).
3. On the history of the microscope and related technologies, see Reginald S. Clay, The History of the Microscope: Compiled from Original Instruments and Documents, up to the Introduction of the Achromatic Microscope (London: Holland Press, 1932); Savile Bradbury, The Microscope: Past and Present (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1968); Savile Bradbury and Gerard L'Estrange Turner, Historical Aspects of Microscopy (Cambridge: W. Heffer, 1967); Brian Bracegirdle, A History of Microtechnique: The Evolution of the Microtome and the Development of Tissue Preparation, 2d ed. (Lincolnwood, Ill.: Science Heritage, 1986).
4. On the history of the microscope and related technologies, see Reginald S. Clay, The History of the Microscope: Compiled from Original Instruments and Documents, up to the Introduction of the Achromatic Microscope (London: Holland Press, 1932); Savile Bradbury, The Microscope: Past and Present (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1968); Savile Bradbury and Gerard L'Estrange Turner, Historical Aspects of Microscopy (Cambridge: W. Heffer, 1967); Brian Bracegirdle, A History of Microtechnique: The Evolution of the Microtome and the Development of Tissue Preparation, 2d ed. (Lincolnwood, Ill.: Science Heritage, 1986).
5. On the history of the microscope and related technologies, see Reginald S. Clay, The History of the Microscope: Compiled from Original Instruments and Documents, up to the Introduction of the Achromatic Microscope (London: Holland Press, 1932); Savile Bradbury, The Microscope: Past and Present (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1968); Savile Bradbury and Gerard L'Estrange Turner, Historical Aspects of Microscopy (Cambridge: W. Heffer, 1967); Brian Bracegirdle, A History of Microtechnique: The Evolution of the Microtome and the Development of Tissue Preparation, 2d ed. (Lincolnwood, Ill.: Science Heritage, 1986).
6. For general discussions of the cell theory, see J. R. Baker, "The Cell Theory: A Restatement, History and Critique," Quart. J. Microsc. Sci., 1918, 89: 103-23; William Coleman, Biology in the Nineteenth Century: Problems of Form, Function, and Transformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), chap. 2. For discussions of the cell theory in Britain, see L. S. Jacyna, "John Goodsir and the Making of Cellular Reality," J. Hist. Biol., 1983, 16: 75-99; idem, "The Romantic Programme and the Reception of Cell Theory in Britain," ibid., 1984, 17: 13-48.
7. For general discussions of the cell theory, see J. R. Baker, "The Cell Theory: A Restatement, History and Critique," Quart. J. Microsc. Sci., 1918, 89: 103-23; William Coleman, Biology in the Nineteenth Century: Problems of Form, Function, and Transformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), chap. 2. For discussions of the cell theory in Britain, see L. S. Jacyna, "John Goodsir and the Making of Cellular Reality," J. Hist. Biol., 1983, 16: 75-99; idem, "The Romantic Programme and the Reception of Cell Theory in Britain," ibid., 1984, 17: 13-48.
8. For general discussions of the cell theory, see J. R. Baker, "The Cell Theory: A Restatement, History and Critique," Quart. J. Microsc. Sci., 1918, 89: 103-23; William Coleman, Biology in the Nineteenth Century: Problems of Form, Function, and Transformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), chap. 2. For discussions of the cell theory in Britain, see L. S. Jacyna, "John Goodsir and the Making of Cellular Reality," J. Hist. Biol., 1983, 16: 75-99; idem, "The Romantic Programme and the Reception of Cell Theory in Britain," ibid., 1984, 17: 13-48.
9. For general discussions of the cell theory, see J. R. Baker, "The Cell Theory: A Restatement, History and Critique," Quart. J. Microsc. Sci., 1918, 89: 103-23; William Coleman, Biology in the Nineteenth Century: Problems of Form, Function, and Transformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), chap. 2. For discussions of the cell theory in Britain, see L. S. Jacyna, "John Goodsir and the Making of Cellular Reality," J. Hist. Biol., 1983, 16: 75-99; idem, "The Romantic Programme and the Reception of Cell Theory in Britain," ibid., 1984, 17: 13-48.
10. There is no full history of the Edinburgh medical school in the nineteenth century, but see Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh during Its First Three Hundred Years, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Longmans, 1884); D. B. Horn, A Short History of the University of Edinburgh, 1556-1889 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1967); Lisa Rosner, Medical Education in the Age of Improvement: Edinburgh Students and Apprentices, 1760-1826 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991); L. S. Jacyna, Philosophic Whigs: Medicine, Science, and Citizenship in Edinburgh, 1789-1848 (London: Routledge, 1994).
11. There is no full history of the Edinburgh medical school in the nineteenth century, but see Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh during Its First Three Hundred Years, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Longmans, 1884); D. B. Horn, A Short History of the University of Edinburgh, 1556-1889 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1967); Lisa Rosner, Medical Education in the Age of Improvement: Edinburgh Students and Apprentices, 1760-1826 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991); L. S. Jacyna, Philosophic Whigs: Medicine, Science, and Citizenship in Edinburgh, 1789-1848 (London: Routledge, 1994).
12. There is no full history of the Edinburgh medical school in the nineteenth century, but see Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh during Its First Three Hundred Years, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Longmans, 1884); D. B. Horn, A Short History of the University of Edinburgh, 1556-1889 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1967); Lisa Rosner, Medical Education in the Age of Improvement: Edinburgh Students and Apprentices, 1760-1826 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991); L. S. Jacyna, Philosophic Whigs: Medicine, Science, and Citizenship in Edinburgh, 1789-1848 (London: Routledge, 1994).
13. There is no full history of the Edinburgh medical school in the nineteenth century, but see Alexander Grant, The Story of the University of Edinburgh during Its First Three Hundred Years, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Longmans, 1884); D. B. Horn, A Short History of the University of Edinburgh, 1556-1889 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1967); Lisa Rosner, Medical Education in the Age of Improvement: Edinburgh Students and Apprentices, 1760-1826 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991); L. S. Jacyna, Philosophic Whigs: Medicine, Science, and Citizenship in Edinburgh, 1789-1848 (London: Routledge, 1994).
14. Russell C. Maulitz, Morbid Appearances: The Anatomy of Pathology in the Early Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Thomas Neville Bonner, Becoming a Physician: Medical Education in Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, 1750-1915 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
15. Russell C. Maulitz, Morbid Appearances: The Anatomy of Pathology in the Early Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Thomas Neville Bonner, Becoming a Physician: Medical Education in Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, 1750-1915 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
16. [Allen Thomson], "[Address to] Medical Society of the University [of Glasgow]," MS Gen. 1476, box 7, Glasgow University Library, Glasgow, Scotland (hereafter GUL).
17. The chief biographical source for Thomson is W. Aitken, "Obituary of Allen Thomson," Proc. Roy. Soc. London, 1887, 42: xi-xxviii. See also L. S. Jacyna, ed., A Tale of Three Cities: The Correspondence of William Sharpey and Allen Thomson (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1989), pp. xii-xiv; idem, Philosophic Whigs (n. 4), chap. 5.
18. The chief biographical source for Thomson is W. Aitken, "Obituary of Allen Thomson," Proc. Roy. Soc. London, 1887, 42: xi-xxviii. See also L. S. Jacyna, ed., A Tale of Three Cities: The Correspondence of William Sharpey and Allen Thomson (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1989), pp. xii-xiv; idem, Philosophic Whigs (n. 4), chap. 5.
19. The chief biographical source for Thomson is W. Aitken, "Obituary of Allen Thomson," Proc. Roy. Soc. London, 1887, 42: xi-xxviii. See also L. S. Jacyna, ed., A Tale of Three Cities: The Correspondence of William Sharpey and Allen Thomson (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1989), pp. xii-xiv; idem, Philosophic Whigs (n. 4), chap. 5.
20. Allen Thomson, [Life of William Sharpey], GUL, MS Gen. 1476, box 16, p. 3. John Thomson was Allen's father; the "observations" in question were presumably those he incorporated into his monograph on inflammation: John Thomson, Lectures on Inflammation, Exhibiting a View of the General Doctrines, Pathological and Practical, of Medical Surgery (Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, 1813).
21. In Thomson's chronology of Sharpey's life (n. 8), he noted that "I returned from Paris &c. in July 1829. And found Dr. S. in lodgings in Castle S' and we then became very intimate and constantly together-in observations &c" ("1829" entry).
22. William Sharpey, "On a Peculiar Motion Excited in Fluids by the Surfaces of Certain Animals," Edinburgh Med. & Surg. J., 1830, 34: 113-22.
23. [Obituary], "John Hughes Bennett, M.D., F.R.S.E.," Brit. Med. J., 1875, 2: 473-78, on p. 473.
24. William Sharpey, "The Address in Physiology," Brit. Med. J., 1862, 2: 162-71, on p. 164.
25. Allen Thomson, Outlines of Physiology; for the Use of Students. Part I (Edinburgh: Maclachlan, Stewart, 1848), p. 84.
26. Ibid.
27. John Hughes Bennett, Testimonials in Favour of John Hughes Bennett, M.D., F.R.S.E. (Edinburgh: Murray and Gibb, 1855), p. 85.
28. Ibid., p. 106.
29. Ibid., p. 58.
30. [John Hughes Bennett], "Review of David Craigie, Elements of General and Pathological Anatomy," Monthly J. Med. Sci., 1848, 8:617-18, on p. 618.
31. Ibid.
32. Bennett, Testimonials (n. 15), p. 61.
33. John Hughes Bennett, Clinical Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Medicine, 2d ed. (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1858), p. 61.
34. John Hughes Bennett, "Of the Doctrine of Life and of the Tissues which manifest it. Section 1 - Histology of the Tissues," MS Gen. 2007, folders 1-4, p. 1, Edinburgh University Library, Edinburgh, Scotland (hereafter EUL).
35. Jonathan Crary, Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990), chap. 3.
36. John Hughes Bennett, On the Employment of the Microscope in Medical Studies (Edinburgh: Maclachlan, Stewart, 1841), p. 13.
37. John Hughes Bennett, "Introductory Address to a Course of Lectures on Histology, and the Use of the Microscope," Lancet, 1845, 1:517-22, on p. 520.
38. Aitken, "Obituary of Allen Thomson" (n. 7), p. xx.
39. In Edinburgh one source of such skepticism about the value of the microscope was the prominent extramural teacher Robert Knox, who "was satirizing the microscope, as he did most things" (ibid.).
40. st Introductory. Edinburgh 1838. & Aberdeen 1839," GUL, MS Gen. 1476, box 7, p. [29].
41. Allen Thomson, "Lectures on Physiology," GUL, MS Gen. 170 (1-3), vol. 2, p. 4. The second sentence of this passage was at some later date heavily scored out.
42. r [1832]").
43. r [1832]").
44. John Goodsir, [Prelim. Lecture], EUL, MS 289-306 (290), pp. 9-10.
45. Ibid., pp. 11-12.
46. Ibid., pp. 12-13.
47. Ibid., pp. 16-17.
48. For variations on this technology used by other London teachers, see Graeme Gooday, "'Nature' in the Laboratory: Domestication and Discipline with the Microscope in Victorian Life Science," Brit. J. Hist. Sci., 1991, 24:307-41, on p. 328.
49. Thomson, Outlines (n. 13), p. 83.
50. Ibid., p. 84.
51. Aitken, "Obituary of Allen Thomson" (n. 7), p. xx.
52. Allen Thomson, "Micros. Lect. 16. 42/44," GUL, MS Gen. 1476, box 8, p. 1.
53. Thomson, Outlines (n. 13), p. 88.
54. Ibid., p. 90.
55. S. Jacyna, "John Hughes Bennett and the Origins of Medical Microscopy in Edinburgh," Proc. Roy. Coll. Physicians Edinburgh, 1997, 27: 12-21.
56. Bennett, Testimonials (n. 15), p. iii.
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid.
59. "John Hughes Bennett" (n. 11), p. 475. This remark is directed specifically at Bennett's clinical teaching; it applies, however, to other aspects of his pedagogy.
60. Ibid., p. 473.
61. John Hughes Bennett, [Untitled Fragment], EUL, MS Gen. 2007, folder 1. For a discussion of Bennett's "French" microscopes, see A. D. Morrison-Low and R. H. Nuttall, "Science and Status: Chevalier Microscopes and the Edinburgh Medical School," Bull. Sci. Instrum. Soc., 2000, 65: 14-18.
62. Bennett, Clinical Lectures (n. 21), p. 65.
63. Thomas Laycock imputed baser motives for Bennett's attempt to guide his students' choice of microscope: he alleged that when Bennett became a professor, he "sold microscopes to his class, at a profit, and got them passed the custom-house free of duty as being for his own private use" (Michael Barfoot, ed., "To Ask the Suffrages of the Patrons": Thomas Laycock and the Edinburgh Chair of Medicine, 1855 [London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1995], p. 104).
64. Bennett, Clinical Lectures (n. 21), p. 71.
65. Bennett, On the Employment (n. 24), p. 5.
66. J. H. Bennett, "Diseases of the Blood," EUL, MS Gen. 2007, folder 4, pp. 3-4.
67. Bennett, Testimonials (n. 15), p. 50.
68. Bennett possessed "ten excellent achromatic microscopes" for teaching purposes ([Concluding Lecture to Course on Microscopical Anatomy], EUL, MS Gen. 2007, folders 1-4, p. 1.
69. W. W. Johnston, "John Hughes Bennett - His Services to Medicine," Address to the Medical and Chirurgical Society of Maryland, 1899, British Library, BL 10600.ff.9 (3), p. 5.
70. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan (London: Harmondsworth, 1977), p. 153.
71. John Hughes Bennett, [Untitled Lecture], EUL, MS Gen. 2007, folder 1, p. 1.
72. Ibid.
73. John Hughes Bennett, [Untitled Fragment], EUL, MS Gen. 2007, folder 1.
74. Thomson, "Micros. Lect. 16. 42/44" (n. 39), pp. 7-8.
75. Ibid., p. 13.
76. John Hughes Bennett, [Fragments on Microscopy], EUL, MS Gen. 2007, folders 1-4, p. 2.
77. Crary, Techniques (n. 23), p. 39.
78. On the notion of "docile bodies" within disciplinary regimes, see Foucault, Discipline and Punish (n. 57), part 3, chap. 1.
79. Bennett, Clinical Lectures (n. 21), p. 72.
80. Johnston, "John Hughes Bennett" (n. 56), p. 6.
81. Ibid.
82. "John Hughes Bennett" (n. 11), p. 475.
83. [John Hughes Bennett], "The Late Dr John Thomson," Monthly J. Med. Sci., 1846, 7: 397. On John Thomson's use of illustrations in his teaching, see Jacyna, Philosophic Whigs (n. 4), pp. 123-24.
84. [John Hughes Bennett], "The Late Dr John Thomson," Monthly J. Med. Sci., 1846, 7: 397. On John Thomson's use of illustrations in his teaching, see Jacyna, Philosophic Whigs (n. 4), pp. 123-24.
85. Aitken, "Obituary of Allen Thomson" (n. 7), p. xx.
86. John G. McKendrick, "Obituary:John Hughes Bennett," Edinburgh Med. J., 1875-76, 21: 466-74, on pp. 469-70.
87. Ibid., p. 470.
88. Bennett, Clinical Lectures (n. 21), p. 72.
89. Thomson, "Micros. Lect. 16. 42/44" (n. 39), p. 37.
90. John Hughes Bennett, On Cancerous and Cancroid Growths (Edinburgh: Sutherland & Knox, 1849), p. vi.
91. Allen Thomson, "Function of Secretion & Nutrition," [1844-45], GUL, MS Gen. 1476, box 8, p. [5].
92. John Hughes Bennett, "Contributions to Pathology and Rational Medicine. Number 2," Monthly J. Med. Sci., 1847, 7:93-101, on p. 96.
93. John Hughes Bennett, [Notes on Cellular Physiology], EUL, MS Gen. 2007, folders 1-4, quotation in folder 1, p. 94.
94. John Hughes Bennett, "On the Morbid Anatomy and Pathology of the Typhus Fever which has been Prevalent in Edinburgh during the Session 1846-7," Monthly J. Med. Sci., 1847-48, 8: 299-302, on p. 302.
95. Barfoot, "To Ask" (n. 50), p. 70.
96. John Hughes Bennett, "Lectures on Cancer," EUL, MS Gen. 2007, folder 3, p. 10.
97. The note is scribbled on the fly-leaf of the EUL copy of Bennett's Pathological and Histological Researches on Inflammation of the Nervous Centres (1843).
98. Bennett, Testimonials (n. 15), p. 20.
99. Ibid., p. 61.
100. st 1845," GUL, MS 1476, box 7, p. [26].
101. Bennett, "Doctrine of Life" (n. 22), p. 5.
102. John Hughes Bennett, [Fragment on Attitudes to Microscopy], EUL, MS Gen. 2007, folder 3.
103. Bennett, [Fragments on Microscopy] (n. 63), pp. 1-2.
104. Thomson, [Life of William Sharpey] (n. 8), "1829" entry.
105. Bennett, "Doctrine of Life" (n. 22), p. 4. On the conversational mode as a means of maintaining solidarity about matters of fact, see Steven Shapin, A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1994), esp. pp. 119-25. Shapin notes that conversation was incompatible with any one individual's claiming exclusive authority.
106. Bennett, "Doctrine of Life" (n. 22), p. 4. On the conversational mode as a means of maintaining solidarity about matters of fact, see Steven Shapin, A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1994), esp. pp. 119-25. Shapin notes that conversation was incompatible with any one individual's claiming exclusive authority.
107. [Allen Thomson], "[Address to] Medical Society of the University [of Glasgow]" (n. 6), p. 1.
108. Ibid., pp. 8-9.
109. "Physiological Society of Edinburgh," Monthly J. Med. Sci., 1851, 13: 90-93, on p. 90.
110. Ibid.
111. Ibid.
112. Ibid.
113. Ibid.
114. Ibid., p. 91.
115. Ibid., p. 190.
116. "Meeting XVII, July 13 1852," Monthly J. Med. Sci., 1852, 15:509-12, on p. 511.
117. "Meeting III, June 21 1851," Monthly J. Med. Sci., 1851, 13: 188-94, on p. 190.
118. Ibid., pp. 191-92.
119. Cf. Shapin and Schaffer, Leviathan (n. 1), p. 336.
120. "Meeting VIII, July 26 1851," Monthly J. Med. Sci., 1851, 75: 491-92, on p. 492.
121. "Meeting II, December 6 1851," Monthly J. Med. Sci., 1852, 14: 185-90, on p. 186.
122. Ibid.
123. On occasion, Bennett's views were contradicted: see "Meeting XVIII, July 27 1852," Monthly J. Med. Sci., 1852, 15:510-12, on p. 511.
124. "Meeting X, March 27, 1852," Monthly J. Med. Sci., 1852, 14: 185-90, p. 574.
125. Ibid.
126. "Session H. (Winter 1851-52) - Meeting I-22d Nov 1851," ibid., pp. 180-85, on p. 181.
127. Ibid., p. 180.
128. "Session 1853-5. Meeting I, Nov 19 1853," Monthly J. Med. Sci., 1854, 18: 79-85, on p. 79.
129. Gerard L'Estrange Turner, God Bless the Microscope! A History of the Royal Microscopical Society over 150 Years (Oxford: Royal Microscopical Society, 1989).
130. Deborah Jean Warner, "The Campaign for Medical Microscopy in Antebellum America," Bull. Hist. Med., 1995, 69: 367-86.
131. Stella Butler, R. H. Nuttall, and Olivia Brown, The Social History of the Microscope (Cambridge: Whipple Museum of the History of Science, 1986); J. A. Bennett, "The Social History of the Microscope," J. Microsc., 1989, 155: 267-80; John Harley Warner, "'Exploring the Inner Labyrinths of Creation': Popular Microscopy in Nineteenth-Century America," J. Hist. Med. & Allied Sci., 1982, 37:7-33.
132. Stella Butler, R. H. Nuttall, and Olivia Brown, The Social History of the Microscope (Cambridge: Whipple Museum of the History of Science, 1986); J. A. Bennett, "The Social History of the Microscope," J. Microsc., 1989, 155: 267-80; John Harley Warner, "'Exploring the Inner Labyrinths of Creation': Popular Microscopy in Nineteenth-Century America," J. Hist. Med. & Allied Sci., 1982, 37:7-33.
133. Stella Butler, R. H. Nuttall, and Olivia Brown, The Social History of the Microscope (Cambridge: Whipple Museum of the History of Science, 1986); J. A. Bennett, "The Social History of the Microscope," J. Microsc., 1989, 155: 267-80; John Harley Warner, "'Exploring the Inner Labyrinths of Creation': Popular Microscopy in Nineteenth-Century America," J. Hist. Med. & Allied Sci., 1982, 37:7-33.
134. For a rare attempt to combine a discussion of the rhetoric surrounding the microscope with a study of the mechanisms whereby technical competence was imparted, see Gooday, "'Nature' in the Laboratory" (n. 35).