![Great Stuart Street 9-17, Edinburgh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Great_Stuart_Street_9-17%2C_Edinburgh.JPG)
Sir Harold Jalland Stiles (21 March 1863 – 19 April 1946) was an English surgeon who was known for his research into cancer and tuberculosis and for treatment of nerve injuries.
Early years
Harold Stiles was born in
Spalding, Lincolnshire
Spalding () is a market town on the River Welland in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. The town had a population of 31,588 at the 2011 census. The town is the administrative centre of the South Holland District. The town is ...
in 1863 the son of Henry Tournay Stiles MD and his wife, Elizabeth Ellen Jalland. He came from a family of doctors.
He studied Medicine at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
, graduating MB ChB in 1885.
He earned the Ettles scholarship for the most distinguished graduate of the year.
For two years he then taught anatomy at Edinburgh.
He was House Surgeon to Professor
John Chiene
John Chiene, CB, LLD, MD, FRSE, FRCSEd (25 February 1843 – 29 May 1923) was a Scottish surgeon, who was Professor of Surgery at the University of Edinburgh during some of its most influential years. He was a founder of the Edinburgh ...
FRSE, Demonstrator in the University Department of Anatomy under Sir William Turner, and Assistant in Charge of Pathology in the university's surgical laboratory.
In 1889 Stiles was admitted as a Fellow of the
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is a professional organisation of surgeons. The College has seven active faculties, covering a broad spectrum of surgical, dental, and other medical practices. Its main campus is located o ...
. He was then living at 5 Castle Terrace, south of
Edinburgh Castle.
He trained for six months under Professor
Theodore Kocher in Bern, where he learned to follow the aseptic system of surgery rather than
Listerian antisepsis.
Stiles was the first surgeon to use the aseptic approach in Edinburgh.
Later career
Stiles was appointed assistant surgeon at the
Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh
The Royal Hospital for Sick Children was a hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, specialising in paediatric healthcare. Locally, it was commonly referred to simply as the "Sick Kids". The hospital provided emergency care for children from birth to ...
and assistant surgeon at the
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, or RIE, often (but incorrectly) known as the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, or ERI, was established in 1729 and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest v ...
.
He was later made Surgeon at the Sick Children's Hospital in succession to
Joseph Bell
Joseph Bell FRCSE (2 December 1837 – 4 October 1911) was a Scottish surgeon and lecturer at the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in the 19th century. He is best known as an inspiration for the literary character Sherlock Hol ...
.
He taught at the Children's Hospital for many years, and during this period he or his assistants published important papers on surgical tuberculosis, earning him recognition throughout the medical world. At the same time he worked at the
Chalmers Hospital.
He lectured on Applied Anatomy at the university, and became known as an extremely skilled anatomist and surgeon.
Around 1909 he visited the United States, meeting the surgical staff at the
Mayo Clinic.
In 1910 he was living at 9 Great Stuart Street on the
Moray Estate
The Moray Estate in Edinburgh was an exclusive early 19th century building venture attaching the west side of Edinburgh's New Town.
Built on an awkward and steeply sloping site, it has been described as a masterpiece of urban planning.
Back ...
.
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
(1914–1918) Stiles was a Colonel in the
Royal Army Medical Corps in France, and then Director of Military Orthopaedics for Scotland.
He was responsible for treating wounded soldiers in the Military Surgical Division at the
Bangour hospital
Bangour Village Hospital was a psychiatric hospital located west of Dechmont in West Lothian, Scotland. During the First World War it formed part of the much larger Edinburgh War Hospital.
History
The hospital was modelled on the village system ...
,
and for his achievements was awarded a knighthood in the
1918 New Year Honours
The 1918 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were published in ''The London Gazette'' and ''The Times'' in Ja ...
and made a Knight Commander of the
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in 1919.
In 1919 he succeeded Prof
Francis Mitchell Caird
Francis Mitchell Caird FRCSEd (8 August 1853 – 2 November 1926) was a Scottish surgeon who was an early advocate of Listerian antisepsis and then asepsis. He was a pioneer of gastrointestinal surgery. From 1908 to 1919 he was Regius Professor ...
as Regius Professor of Clinic Surgery at Edinburgh University, holding this position for six years before retiring.
He was also appointed to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary,
where he organized a surgical unit and pathological laboratory and provided practical courses in surgery.
In 1923, Stiles visited
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, temporarily replacing Professor
Harvey Williams Cushing
Harvey Williams Cushing (April 8, 1869 – October 7, 1939) was an American neurosurgeon, pathologist, writer, and draftsman. A pioneer of brain surgery, he was the first exclusive neurosurgeon and the first person to describe Cushing's disease. ...
. For two weeks he taught clinical surgery and was surgeon to the
Peter Bent Brigham Hospital
Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is the second largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two f ...
in Boston. From 1923 to 1925 he was
President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He was succeeded by
Arthur Logan Turner.
In 1924 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir
James Alfred Ewing
Sir James Alfred Ewing MInstitCE (27 March 1855 − 7 January 1935) was a Scottish physicist and engineer, best known for his work on the magnetic properties of metals and, in particular, for his discovery of, and coinage of the word, '' h ...
,
Arthur Robinson,
Arthur Robertson Cushny
Arthur Robertson Cushny FRS FRSE LLD (6 March 1866 – 25 February 1926), was a Scottish pharmacologist and physiologist who became a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Life
Cushny was born on 6 March 1866 in Fochabers, Moray, Scotland, the fourt ...
and
James Hartley Ashworth
James Hartley Ashworth FRS FRSE DSc SZS (2 May 1874 – 4 February 1936) was a British marine zoologist.
Life
See
He was born on 2, May 1874, in Accrington in Lancashire, the only son of James Ashworth.
He spent most of his early life in Bu ...
.
Harold Stiles died in his home, Whatton Lodge in
Gullane
Gullane ( or ) is a town on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth in East Lothian on the east coast of Scotland. There has been a church in the village since the ninth century. The ruins of the Old Church of St. Andrew built in the twel ...
, East Lothian, in 1946, aged 83.
Family
![Harold J Stiles carved signature](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Harold_J_Stiles_carved_signature.png)
He married twice: in 1889 to Cecilia Norton Law, and, following her death in 1930, in 1931 (aged 68) he married Jean Morrison Thorburn.
He was survived by one daughter, Dorothy who went on to marry a Mr George Rome.
Work
Stiles showed that tuberculosis of bones, joints and cervical lymph nodes was often caused by the bovine form of the tubercle bacillus.
He earned international recognition for his research into the anatomy of the breast and the pathology of breast cancer.
In 1886, he was the first person to win the Walker Prize from 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 ...
, awarded for this research.
Where some experts in cancer treatment, such as
Joseph Colt Bloodgood
Joseph Colt Bloodgood (November 1, 1867 – October 22, 1935) was a prominent surgeon in the United States based in Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
He was known for insisting on the use of rubber gloves by the entire surgical team, ...
, used pathological techniques to determine whether a lesion was malignant, Stiles did not believe this was necessary. In 1908 he said "a knowledge of the histological structure of a lump in the breast is of little value for the patient unless the surgeon can associate it with a correct life history. With this knowledge at his command, it will be very rarely necessary for the surgeon to be supported in the operating theatre by an expert pathologist armed with a freezing microtome."
Stiles was the first surgeon to transplant the ureter into the sigmoid colon as a treatment for extraversion of the bladder.
On 3 February 1910 he performed the first
pyloromyotomy
Pyloromyotomy is a surgical procedure in which a portion of the muscle fibers of the pyloric muscle are cut. This is typically done in cases where the contents from the stomach are inappropriately stopped by the pyloric muscle, causing the stomac ...
, a surgery to correct congenital hypertrophic
pyloric stenosis
Pyloric stenosis is a narrowing of the opening from the stomach to the first part of the small intestine (the pylorus). Symptoms include projectile vomiting without the presence of bile. This most often occurs after the baby is fed. The typical a ...
, the congenital narrowing of the path between the stomach and the intestines in infants. However, the procedure is named for Dr.
Wilhelm Ramstedt, who did the surgery seventeen months later on 28 July 1911.
Stiles was greatly interested in orthopaedic surgery, which may have been due to the demands that many of these operations made on anatomical knowledge, in which he excelled.
He undertook many orthopaedic operations for wounded soldiers at the EMS Hospital at Bangour.
He learned how to treat nerve injuries at the Scottish Military Hospital at
Bangour, and became famous for this pioneering work.
Distinguished American orthopedic surgeon
Paul B. Steele served under Harold Stiles from 1917 to 1918, where he was taught the techniques of war surgery before joining the army in France.
Maud Forrester-Brown, the first woman orthopaedic surgeon in Britain, worked for Stiles.
Gertrude Herzfeld served as house surgeon to Stiles at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh, from 1914-1917, becoming the first female surgeon in Scotland and the first female pediatric surgeon.
LeRoy Charles Abbott of California studied under Stiles in 1919–1920, and became renowned for his work in orthopedic surgery.
Notes and references
Citations
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stiles, Harold
1863 births
1946 deaths
People from Spalding, Lincolnshire
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Academics of the University of Edinburgh
Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Knights Bachelor
Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire