William CheseldenDied 10 Apr 1752 at age 63 (born 19 Oct 1688).English surgeon and teacher of anatomy and surgery, who was instrumental in raising surgery to a profession. He began lecturing on anatomy at age 22. Three years after that, he published Anatomy of the Human Body, (1713) written in English instead of the Latin, which remained in print as a text for anatomy students for almost a century. He was the first to perform operations for iridectomy, the removal of part of the iris to treat blindness (1728) and lateral lithotomy (1727). In the latter operation, he was quick and precise surgeon, able to remove bladder stones in about one minute. He described the role of saliva in digestion, as opposed to the general belief that digestion resulted from the mechanical actions of the abdominal muscles on the stomach. |
