ABERNETHY, John, an eminent surgeon, was born in London in 1765. His professional studies and career began and terminated in the metropolis, where he obtained a high reputation. He was an apprentice to Sir Charles Bick; and succeeded the celebrated Mr Pott in 1787, as assistant-surgeon in St Bartholomew's Hospital. Not long after, Abernethy was also his successor as Lecturer on Anatomy and Surgery; an office in which he acquired just celebrity, from an easy, impressive manner, and a style of illustration at once amusing and instructive. On the death of Bick, he was elected surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital, of which he was long a distinguished member. His reputation began with his success as a teacher; but it rested on the more solid foundation of his efforts for the practical improvement of surgery. The philosophic views developed in his work entitled "The Constitutional Origin and Treatment of Local Diseases," are of great practical importance, and are founded on two general principles;—1st, That topical diseases are
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often mere symptoms of constitutional maladies, and then can only be removed by general remedies; 2d, That the disordered state of the constitution very often originates in, or is closely allied to deranged states of the stomach and bowels; and can only be remedied by means that beneficially affect the functions of those organs. Besides these essays, we are indebted to Mr Abernethy for the original suggestion and practice of the daring operation of securing by ligature the carotid and external iliac arteries. This eminent surgeon had one peculiar eccentricity, which candour compels us to notice. In the private circle of his family and of his friends he was kind, courteous, and affectionate, was just and honourable in his intercourse with all; but, in his latter days, especially with his patients, he was often rude and capricious, and sometimes assumed an offensive coarseness, at variance with a character otherwise estimable. (T.S.T.)