Alfred Smee FRS,

FRCS Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (FRCS) is a professional qualification to practise as a senior surgeon in Ireland or the United Kingdom. It is bestowed on an intercollegiate basis by the four Royal Colleges of Surgeons (the Royal C ...

(18 June 1818,

Camberwell Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This e ...

– 11 January 1877,

Finsbury Circus Finsbury Circus is a park in the Coleman Street Ward of the City of London, England. The 2 acre park is the largest public open space within the City's boundaries. It is not to be confused with Finsbury Square, just north of the City, or Finsb ...

) was an English surgeon, chemist, metallurgist, electrical researcher and inventor. He was also an orchid enthusiast. Born the second son of William Smee, accountant-general to the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

, Alfred Smee entered in November 1829

St Paul's School, London (''By Faith and By Learning'') , established = , closed = , type = Independent school Public school , religion = Church of England , president = , he ...

and in October 1834 became a medical student at

King's College, London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

. During most of his student life, he lived at his father's official residence within the Bank of England and there did research on chemistry and electro-metallurgy which made him famous a few years later. After King's College, he entered

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 ...

, became a surgical assistant to

Sir William Lawrence, 1st Baronet Sir William Lawrence, 1st Baronet (16 July 1783 – 5 July 1867) was an English surgeon who became President of the Royal College of Surgeons of London and Serjeant Surgeon to the Queen. In his mid-thirties, he published two books of his lectu ...

, and received in April 1840 his diploma as a member 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 ...

. Smee became a consulting surgeon at the

London Institution The London Institution was an educational institution founded in London in 1806 (not to be confused with the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom founded the previous year, with which it shared some founders). It ...

and specialised in diseases of the eye. During this time as a consulting surgeon he also continued his chemical and electro-metallurgical research and developed the Smee's battery (zinc plate and silver plate, coated with

platinum black Platinum black (Pt black) is a fine powder of platinum with good catalytic properties. The name of platinum black is due to its black color. It is used in many ways; as a thin film electrode, a fuel cell membrane catalyst, or as a catalytic igniti ...

, in sulphuric acid), for which he was awarded the gold Isis medal from the Society of Arts. In 1840 he published a valuable treatise on electro-metallury dealing with the principles of reduction of metals in different states. His 1849 treatise ''Elements of Electro-Biology'' was a pioneering effort in electrical physiology and in 1850 a popular version was published with the title ''Instinct and Reason''. At the London Institution he helped to establish in 1854 a long-lived system of educational lectures. Smee is credited with the first sighting (29 June 1861) of the Great Comet of 1861 in the northern hemisphere (previously discovered on 13 May 1861 in the southern hemisphere by

John Tebbutt John Tebbutt (25 May 1834 – 29 November 1916) was an Australian astronomer, famous for discovering the " Great Comet of 1861". Early life Tebbutt was born at Windsor, New South Wales, the only son of John Tebbutt, then a prosperous store keepe ...

). In the later part of his life Smee maintained an experimental garden at Wallington Bridge, in the hamlet of Wallington, in the parish of

Beddington Beddington is a suburban settlement in the London Borough of Sutton on the boundary with the London Borough of Croydon. Beddington is formed from a village of the same name which until early the 20th century still included land which became t ...

, in the county of Surrey; the garden covered 7.925 acres of land and water. He married Elizabeth Hutchison on 2 June 1840 in London. They had a son and two daughters. Elizabeth Mary Smee (1843-1919) married

William Odling William Odling, FRS (5 September 1829 in Southwark, London – 17 February 1921 in Oxford) was an English chemist who contributed to the development of the periodic table. In the 1860s Odling, like many chemists, was working towards classifying ...

and published a memoir of her father in 1878. Alfred Hutchison Smee (1841–1901) became a physician who was elected a Fellow of the Chemical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Alfred Hutchison Smee cultivated orchids and created experimental hybrids; the orchid ''Saccolabium smeeanum'' Rchb. f. is named for him.Type of Saccolabium smeeanum Rchb.f. [family ORCHIDACEAE]
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Selected publications

*''Elements of Electro-Metallurgy'', London, 1840; 2nd edition 1843; 3rd edition 1851, translated into Welsh, 1852. *''On the Detection of Needles … impacted in the Human Body'', London, 1845.
''The Potatoe Plant, its Uses and Properties''
1847.
''Elements of Electro-Biology''
London, 1849 *''Vision in Health and Disease'', &c., London, 1847; 2nd edition 1854. *''A Sheet of Instructions as to the proper Treatment of Accidents and Emergencies'', 1850; 10th edition undated; translated into French, Paris, 1872, and into German, Berlin, undated.
''The Process of Thought Adapted to Words and Language. Together with a description of the relational and differential machines''
London, 1851.
''My Garden; its Plan and Culture''
London, 1872.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smee, Alfred 1818 births 1877 deaths People from Camberwell Fellows of the Royal Society English surgeons Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons