BRODIE, SIR BENJAMIN COLLINS, 1ST BART. (1783 1862), English physiologist and surgeon, was born in 1783 at Winterslow, Wiltshire. He was assistant surgeon at St. George's hospital for over 3o years. In 1810 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Probably his most important work is Patho logical and Surgical Observations on the Diseases of the Joints, in which he attempts to trace the beginnings of disease in the different tissues that form a joint, and to give an exact value to the symptom of pain as evidence of organic disease. This volume led to the adoption by surgeons of measures of a conservative nature in the treatment of diseases of the joints, with consequent reduction in the number of amputations and the saving of many limbs and lives. In 1854 he published anonymously a volume of Psychological Inquiries; to a second volume which appeared in 1862 his name was attached. He received many honours during his career, was created a baronet in 1834, and was the first presi dent of the General Medical council. He died at Broome Park, Surrey, Oct. 21, 1862. His collected works, with autobiography, were published in 1865 under the editorship of Charles Hawkins.
His eldest son, SIR BENJAMIN COLLINS BRODIE, 2nd Bart. (1817-8o), was appointed professor of chemistry at Oxford in 1865, and is chiefly known for his investigations on the allotropic states of carbon and for his discovery of graphitic acid.