The Aldersgate Medical School was a medical school in east London, in existence from about 1825 to 1848. One of many private medical schools of the period, it had popular lecturers on its staff, and proved a serious rival to
St. Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust.
History
Early history
Barts was founded in 1123 by Rahere (died ...
as a teaching institution.
Foundation
The Aldersgate School was set up in 1825 by
Frederick Tyrrell
Frederick Tyrrell or Tyrell (1793–1843) was an English surgeon.
Tyrrell was assistant surgeon at the London Eye Infirmary in 1820, and Lecturer in anatomy and surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital in 1822. He became Arris & Gale lecturer. He publis ...
; the founding group included
William Lawrence,
William Coulson
William Coulson (1802 – 1877) was an English surgeon.
Life
The younger son of Thomas Coulson, master painter in Devonport dockyard, he was born at Penzance; Walter Coulson was an elder brother. His father was a close friend of Sir Humphry D ...
and others. At that point the shared medical school of
Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre.
...
and
St. Thomas's Hospital was divided. Tyrrell lectured at the Aldersgate School, but later took a position at St. Thomas's, and was no longer involved with the Aldersgate school. Lawrence was also an early supporter of the school, lecturing on surgery in 1826–7; but he withdrew after taking a position at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Lawrence was a reformer, and the background was his opposition to an 1824 regulation of the
Royal College of Surgeons
The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations a ...
aiming to limit the number of medical schools that a surgical student could attend. He saw this measure as intended to force students into the hospital medical schools.
Jones Quain taught anatomy alongside Lawrence; but he had to drop out following a dissection wound.
Henry Clutterbuck of the nearby Aldersgate Dispensary moved his lectures to the school in 1826. In the same year
Peter Roget
Peter Mark Roget ( ; 18 January 1779 – 12 September 1869) was a British physician, natural theologian, lexicographer and founding secretary of The Portico Library. He is best known for publishing, in 1852, the '' Thesaurus of English Words ...
was brought in to lecture on physiology.
Staff
James Wardrop, one of the founders, lectured on surgery alongside Lawrence, and provided some continuity. The school retained a reputation for radicalism, and sympathy with French theories.
In the 1830s prominent replacement lecturers were found for the initial ones.
was in dispute with Lawrence at St. Bartholomew's, and taught surgery for a decade. The physician
James Hope from the mid-1830s combined lecturing at the Aldersgate School with other positions. The pharmacologist
Jonathan Pereira
Jonathan Pereira FRS (22 May 1804, in London – 20 January 1853) was a pharmacologist, author of the ''Elements of Materia Medica'', a standard work. He was examiner on the subject in the University of London.
Life
Pereira graduated as apotheca ...
came in to lecture on
materia medica.
Robert Edmond Grant
Robert Edmond Grant Doctor of Medicine, MD Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, FRCPEd Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE Zoological Society of London, FZS Geological Society of London, FGS (11 November 1793 – 23 August 1874) was a Br ...
lectured on anatomy, and
Thomas Hodgkin
Thomas Hodgkin RMS (17 August 1798 – 5 April 1866) was a British physician, considered one of the most prominent pathologists of his time and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is now best known for the first account of Hodgkin's disease, ...
on pathology.
With the eventual decline of the school in the 1840s, some of its staff moved to St. Bartholomew's medical school. They included
James Paget
Sir James Paget, 1st Baronet FRS HFRSE (11 January 1814 – 30 December 1899) (, rhymes with "gadget") was an English surgeon and pathologist who is best remembered for naming Paget's disease and who is considered, together with Rudolf Virc ...
.
Student
*
William John Little
William John Little (1810–1894) was an English surgeon who is credited with the first medical identification of spastic diplegia, when he observed it in the 1860s amongst children. While spasticity surely existed before that point, Little was ...
Notes
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Medical schools in England