CARLISLE, SIR ANTHONY, surgeon, was born near Durham, in the year 1768. He commenced his professional education with an uncle at York, and thence he was transferred to Durham, where he remained for some time under the instruction of Mr. Green, the founder of the hospital in that city. Having finished his preparatory studies be repaired to London, and attended the lectures of the Hunters, Dr. Bailie, and Mr. Cruikahank. He was at the same time pupil to Mr. Watson, then surgeon to the Westminster Hospital. On the death of Mr. Watson in 1793, Mr. Carlisle was appointed his successor. He became a member of the College of Surgeons, and was early appointed one of the council of that body. He was for many years on the Board of Examiners, and one of the curators of the Hunterian Museum. Ile also held the appointment of Professor of Surgery and Anatomy, and iu 1829 he filled the office of President. He was appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Ocorge IV., when he was l'rinco Regent, and was knighted by him at the first levee he held as king. He was also surgeon to the late Duke of Gloucester, to whom ho was introduced by the learned Dr. Samuel Parr. In 1808, on the death of Mr. Sheldon, he was appointed Professor of Anatomy to the Royal Academy, an office he held for sixteen years.
Sir Anthony Carlisle owed his position to the activity and industry with which he pursued the various departments of science connected with his profession. His early acquaintance with John Hunter gave him a taste for comparative anatomy, which he pursued with much ardour, and many of his earlier literary productions were on this subject. One of his first papers was `A Case of an unusual Formation in a part of the Brain,' which was printed in the Transactions' of a ' Society for the Improvement of Medical and Surgical Knowledge' in 1793. To tho second volume of the 'Transactions of the Linnwan Society,' published in 1794, he contributed a paper entitled `Observa tions upon the Structure and Economy of those Intestinal Worms called Tienia' In 1800 he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society, and contributed a paper to the `Philosophical Transactions' of that year, entitled ` An Account of a peculiar Arrangement in the Arteries distributed on the Muscles of alow-moving Animals.' There are several other anatomical and physiological papers by him in the 'Philosophical Transactions :' An Account of a monstrous Lamb,' 1801 ; ' The Physiology of the Stapes,' 1805; Account of a Family having hands and feet with superuumerary fingers and toes,' 1814.
After the paper on the distribution of the blood-vesaels in the slow moving animals, Lis attention was directed to the connection between the circulation of the blood and the action of the muscles, and in 1804 he gave the Croonian lecture on 'Muscular Motion.' To medical literature more especially Sir Anthony made many con tributions. One of the first was On the Nature of Corns and the mode of removing them,' published in Simmons's Medical Facts and Observations,' 1797 ; A New Method of applying the Tourniquet' (‘Lond. Med. and Phys. Journal '), 1797 ;.` On the general and indis criminate use of Bougies,' Ibid. 1800; Letter to Sir Gilbert Blanc on Blisters, Rubefacients, and Escharotics, giving an account of the em ployment of an instrument adapted to transmit a defined degree of heat to effect those several purposes,' London, 1S26. In 1817 ho published a larger work entitled Essay on the Disorders of Old Age and the means of prolonging Human Life,' 4to, London ; a second edition was published in 8vo in 1818. In 1829 Sir Anthony published `An Alleged Discovery of the Uae of the Spleen and Thyroid Gland.' During his connection with the College of Surgeons he delivered two of the Hunterian orations—one in 1820 and one in 1826. The first was on the constitution of organised bodies, and the second ou the connection between vascular and extra-vascular parts. One of his last papers on medical subjects was published in the `London Medical Gazette' in 1828, On Erysipelas.' He died in London, on the 2nd of November 1840.
He published numerous other papers : two on plants, in thh 'Horti cultural Transactions;' two on antiquities, in the ` Archxologia;' on the breeding of eels, and the health of workmen in sewers, in the `Philosophical Magazine ;' on the decomposition of eggs, in `Nichol son's Journal ;' and on cathartics, the bite of vipers, the venereal disease, &c , in the ` New Medical and Physical JournaL' One of tho most remarkable of his papers on general subjects was one ou 'Galvanic Electricity,' in `Nicholson's Journal,' in which he first pointed out the fact that water might be decomposed by the galvanic battery. He was also a frequent contributor to the newspapers, and letters of his appeared in the ` Times ' on the salt-duties, the import ance of salt to the health of human beings, military flogging, hygeian quackery, plan-midwifery, &e.