William Watson, 1st Baronet Cheyne

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Sir William Watson, 1st Baronet Cheyne (December 14, 1852, off Hobart, Tasmania – April 19, 1932, Fetlar, Shetland Islands, Scotland) was a British surgeon and bacteriologist, who pioneered the use of antiseptical surgical methods in the United Kingdom, as well as abdominal surgery.

Cheyne was born at sea off of Tasmania. He later attented the University of Edinburgh where he studied medicine. He received degrees in surgery and medicine from there in 1875. By 1876 he had become the house surgeon to Joseph Lister, the British founder of antiseptic medicine. In 1877, the two took posistions at King's College Hospital, where Cheyne served at an assistant surgeon, and later as surgeon from 1880 to 1917 and also as a professor of surgery from 1891 to 1917. He was a devoted follower of Lister and his antiseptic surgical methods. He had a work published in 1882, Antiseptic Surgery: Its Principles, Practice, History and Results, and later in 1885 a book, Lister and His Achievements. The work he did in his early career on bacteria and preventitive medicine was highly influenced by German bacteriologist Robert Koch. Cheyne had visited Koch's labratory and studied his methods. He undertook many trials on giving doses of tuberculin. He reported his findings to the RMCS in April of 1891. He found that giving repeated doses improves the conditions of patients, but rarely acts as a cure. His paper was recognized as the first important contribution to the topic in Britain.[1]

Cheyne served as a consulting surgeon for the British military in South Africa from 1900 to 1901. By 1914 he became a consulting surgeon to the Royal Navy, and in 1915 was for a short time the surgeon general.

He was made a baronet in 1908, and having retired from active practice, he served as lord lieutenant of the Orkney and Shetland Islands from 1919 to 1930.[2]

[edit] Works

  • Antiseptic Surgery: Its Principles, Practice, History and Results (1882)
  • Lister and His Achievements (1885)
  • Manual of the Antiseptic Treatment of Wounds (1885)
  • Manual of Surgical Treatment, 7 vol. (1899–1903; with F. Burghard)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Hunting, Penelope (January 1, 2002). The History of the Royal Society of Medicine. RSM Press. p. 150. ISBN 1853154970.
  2. ^ "Cheyne, Sir William Watson, 1st Baronet." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006.
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