CHESELDEN, WILLIAM, a distinguished surgeon and anatomist of the last century, was born in Leicestershire, in 1688. At fifteen he commenced his medical studies in London, under the best instructors; and began himself to give lectures in anatomy in 1711, which he continued for twenty years with a reputation not far inferior to that of his master, Cowper. Becoming soon favourably known, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1712, and repaid this early distinction by a variety of interesting papers in the 'Philosophical Transactions.' The most remarkable of them, communicated in 1728, is an account of the sensations of a youth of fourteen, blind from infancy, on recovering his sight by the formation of an artificial pupil. The memoir has been much quoted by metaphysical writers : the operation, now common, was then perfectly new ; and added con siderably and justly to Cheselden's fame.
In 1713 he published a work on anatomy which was long the text book of that science in England, and was frequently republished both before and after his death. The eleventh edition was printed in 1778, On the retirement of his tutor, Mr. Ferne, Cheselden succeeded him as surgeon to St. Thomas's, and was afterwards appointed consulting surgeon to St. George's and the Westminster hospitals. He turned these opportunities to good account in maturing his own skill and advancing the science of surgery, which is largely indebted to him. He was probably never surpassed in dexterity and success as an operator ; his coolness never deserted him; and he is said to have been as much distinguished for the tenderness as for the judgment that directed his hand. We aro told that out of forty-two patients whom he cut for the stone in four years, he lost but one ; the present average being at least eix in that number. It is in lithotomy that Cheselden has most repute as an innovator as well as an operator. In 1723 he published a volume on this subject, recommending an improved method of performing what is called the high' operation ; but after more experience and investigation, he laid it aside for the 'lateral' method, of which, as practised of late years, he may almost be considered the inventor. His splendid work on the bones was published by subscrip
tion in 1733, with a dedication to Queen Caroline, to whom he held the appointment of surgeon. It consists of a series of plates of the natural size, with short descriptions; and was then unequalled in execution, and unsurpassed in accuracy. It was not successful as a speculation, and was attacked with bitterness by a lithotomist of the name of Douglas.
In 1737, after a brilliant professional career, and, it is said, partly in disgust at the asperity to which his success had exposed him, Chesel den retired from practice at the age of forty-nine, and undertook tho honorary duties of surgeon to Chelsea Hospital, which he retained for the rest of his life. His last contribution to science, made subsequently to his retirement, consisted of a series of plates with original remarks appended to Gataker's translation of Le Dran's 'Surgery.' In 1751 he suffered an attack of apoplexy from which he recovered; but a return of the complaint caused his eudden death at Bath, on the 10th of April 1752, in his sixty-fourth year.
Cheselden's reputation as a surgeon was solid, and will be lasting. As a man, much that is good is recorded of him, and nothing unfavour able, unless it be his fondness for pugilistic exhibitions, which might have their interest for him as an anatomist. He associated with Pope and other wits of his time ; but as his classical merit was certainly not considerable, their intimacy may be ascribed to his professional eminence and strong natural talents, rather than to the taste for literature and art, upon which ho seems to have prided himself with DO great reason.