PAGET, SIR JAMES, BART. (1814-1899), British surgeon, was born at Yarmouth on Jan. II, 1814, the son of a brewer and shipowner. His brother, Sir George, became regius professor of physic at Cambridge and also had a distinguished medical career. After attending school at Yarmouth, James was apprenticed to a general practitioner until 1834 when he entered St. Bartholo mew's Hospital, London. It was during his first winter session that he detected Trichina spiralis, a minute parasite infecting the human muscles. R. Owen (q.v.), who gave these parasites their scientific name, is usually credited with the discovery, but he merely confirmed what Paget had detected. From May 1836, Paget experienced a period of severe poverty, being too poor to secure a house-surgeoncy or even a dressership. However, in 1841 he was made surgeon to the Finsbury Dispensary, and in 1843 lecturer on general anatomy and physiology at St. Bartholomew's. Four years later, he was appointed assistant surgeon, and also Arris and Gale professor at the College of Surgeons. The lectures given under this professorship were published in 1853 as Lec tures on Surgical Pathology. By 1851 when he was elected F.R.S. Paget had become known as a great physiologist and pathologist. His lectures on physiology were a turning point in the fortunes of St. Bartholomew's school. In pathology, he was Hunter's real
successor, and together with his friend, Virchow (q.v.), may truly be called the founder of the modern science.
In 1851 Paget began practice near Cavendish square, London.
Seven years later he was appointed surgeon extraordinary to Queen Victoria, and in 1863 surgeon in ordinary to the prince of Wales. He specialized on the pathology of tumours and dis eases of the bones and joints, and was the first to urge enucleation of the tumour, instead of amputation, in diseases of myeloid sarcoma. He gave original accounts of eczema of the nipple, mammary cancer, and osteitis deformans. In 1871 he resigned his surgeoncy to the hospital and received a baronetcy. In 1875 he was president of the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1877 Hun terian orator and in 1881 president of the International Medical Congress, and in 1883 became vice-chancellor of the University of London. He died in London on Dec. 3o, 1899.
See Selected Essays and Addresses by Sir James Paget, ed. by his son, S. Paget (London, 1902), who has also written Memoirs and Letters of Sir James Paget (3rd ed. London, 1903).