author

George Macilwain

1797–1882

A 19th-century surgeon and medical writer, he brought a reformer’s eye to medicine and a biographer’s curiosity to the life of his famous teacher, John Abernethy. His books range from practical surgical subjects to broader arguments about how medicine should be studied and practiced.

1 Audiobook

Memoirs of John Abernethy With a View of His Lectures, His Writings, and Character; with Additional Extracts from Original Documents, Now First Published

Memoirs of John Abernethy With a View of His Lectures, His Writings, and Character; with Additional Extracts from Original Documents, Now First Published

by George Macilwain

About the author

Born in 1797, he was the son of an Irish country surgeon and went on to study under the celebrated John Abernethy at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1814. He was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1818 and later became an honorary fellow.

For about twenty years he worked as a surgeon in Finsbury Place, London, building a reputation not just through practice but through medical writing. His works included books on tumours, urethral stricture, skin disease, and larger questions about the principles of medicine and surgery.

He is especially remembered for Memoirs of John Abernethy, first published in 1853, as well as for his outspoken opposition to vivisection. George Macilwain died in 1882.