JOHN HARRISON
Extracts from
Munro Smith’s A History of the Bristol Royal Infirmary
p.305
Henry
Daniel sent in his resignation on July 6th, 1836, and was cordially thanked for
his twenty-six years' services; he was succeeded by John Harrison, who was
elected Surgeon on July 21st of that year.
John Harrison was apprenticed to Richard
Smith at the Infirmary for five years, and afterwards attended the London
hospitals. At the time of his election he was in partnership with Mr. Estlin.
He gave a dinner to his Election Committee at the
Montague Hotel, at which
thirty-six of his friends were present, who celebrated his success, according
to the custom of the time, in numerous speeches.
It must have been a great ordeal for a
young man, before anaesthetics were introduced, to suddenly become an operating
surgeon to a large hospital, without the previous training as a resident
officer, and then as assistant surgeon, which is usual nowadays.
Mr. Harrison's first operation was on a man
" with a tumour under the tongue," on August
9th, 1836. He was naturally clever with his hands, and became a first-rate
surgeon, advocating good food and tonics after operations, instead of low diet
and depletion. He had himself to undergo two serious operations. " He once," says Mr. Board, " walked down to the Infirmary, and smoked a cigar on the
operating table, while one of his confreres removed a malignant tumour from his
arm." Some time after this, when the disease
recurred, his former pupil, Augustin Prichard, amputated the arm below the
elbow.
He was distinguished, not only for his
surgical skill, but for his personal charm and artistic qualities.
"Painter, musician, and even poet of
no mean order, his kindly and cheerful disposition, combined with a keen sense
of humour, great observation, and an excellent
memory, made him a delightful companion, with
an unflagging interest in everything and everybody." (For portrait see Fig. 61.)
He became senior Surgeon in 1850, resigned
in December, 1859, and died on June 6th, 1892, in his ninety-first year.
He forms one of the group
of Infirmary Surgeons shown in Fig. 62.
p.320
The first mention I can find of the use of
chloroform at the Bristol Royal Infirmary is this :—
"Cons.
Room, Aug. 31, 1850 - A consultation was held upon Samuel Edgar, a patient of
Mr. Harrison, with Calculus, as to the propriety of administering Chloroform
previous to the operation of lithotomy, and it was agreed upon that Chloroform
should be administered."
This
entry in the "Surgical Consultation Book" is signed by Nathaniel
Smith, John Harrison, W. F. Morgan, Henry Clark, Thomas Green, and Augustin
Prichard, that is, by the whole of the Honorary Surgical Staff.
Samuel
Edgar, who was fifty years old, and a native of Bristol, did very well, and the
anaesthetic seems to have been successful in every way ; but there is no further reference to chloroform until
May zoth, 1851, when another patient of Mr. Harrison
took it. Nearly all the major operations were still performed without an anaesthetic, for so powerful a drug was looked upon with
fear.
For
instance, on July 15th, 1851, a woman with a diseased breast (also Mr.
Harrison's patient) was to have taken it, but " a
preliminary trial of Chloroform having been made it was deemed inexpedient to
administer it at the time of operation."
p.331
Miscellaneous Book " in
1852 that " Mr. Harrison presented a basket which he had received from Mr.
Syme for the purpose of carrying patients from the
Wards to the Operating Theatre." It was not until 1866 that a canvas " stretcher " was introduced, something like that
used in the army.
P231
Amongst the more noted of
the Bristol medical resurrectionists of the early
part of the nineteenth century, besides Drs. Wallis and Riley, may be mentioned
Edward Richmond Estlin, John Harrison, afterwards Surgeon to the Infirmary, and
Edward Waldo.