John Cleland (anatomist)

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John Cleland, Professor Anatomy and Physiology in Queen’s College Galway from 1863-1877, then Glasgow University from 1877-1909.

John Cleland was born in Perthshire on June 15th 1835, the second son of the family. Cleland’s father was a surgeon who started his career as a Hospital Assistant in the Peninsular War, appointed Assistant Surgeon in the First Dragoons (The Royals) for some years during the early 1800s. Following an initial period of education at The Seminary in Perth, Cleland moved with his family to Edinburgh in 1845, where he was sent to The High School; he entered The University of Edinburgh to study medicine five years later, at the age of fifteen.

He said of anatomy, “I liked my Anatomy after the fashion in which all really serious medical students do, but I had no special predilection for the details of Regional Anatomy, which are such terrible things to master in the first instance, and which are hard to remember, till they are rubbed well in by constant dissection. I failed egregiously at a class competition at the end of my second year, and remember saying that if I ever specialised in one particular subject, it would certainly not be in Anatomy’2.

In-between passing his examinations and his graduation, Cleland had plans to winter in Paris. His mentor, and afterwards friend, Professor Goodsir of Edinburgh, advised him to broaden his plans and his acquaintance. Cleland therefore embarked on a tour of Europe where, letters of introduction in hand, he made contact with Friedrich Arnold at Heidelberg, Hyrtl at Vienna, Edward Weber at Leipzig and Johannes Muller at Berlin. Another mentor of Cleland’s, Professor John Hutton Balfour, the famous Edinburgh Botanist, had also provided him with a letter of introduction to von Martius, a botanist at Munich, rounding off a busy ten-month sojourn; Cleland would marry Balfour’s eldest daughter in 18881,2.

Following graduation in 1856 with the M.D. and L.R.C.S.E., he had charge of Sir James Simpson's Ward in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, for one year. In 1857 Cleland became Junior Demonstrator to Professor John Goodsir in Edinburgh, a position he held until 1861. As there was no prospect of a permanent position in Edinburgh, he moved to Glasgow where he took up the position of Senior Demonstrator to Professor Allen Thomson, in the University of Glasgow2.

At the young age of 28 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the then Queen’s College Galway in 1863, and was awarded the D.Sc. (Honoris Causa). He replaced Charles Croker-King, the first Professor of Anatomy & Physiology who had resigned in order to take up position as Medical Commissioner of the Local Government Board for Ireland.

A prodigious anatomist, Cleland entered a Department which had encountered problems from the founding of the Queen’s Colleges in 1845. The private medical and surgical schools in Dublin had ceased taking students and had sold their anatomical collections to the Colleges in Belfast and Cork, therefore posing a problem for Galway which was endeavouring to set up an Anatomical Museum. Added to this was the fact that there had never been a tradition of medical education in the West of Ireland, which meant that although the medical School had been established for some years, it did not have a large enrolment. In fact, money from the United Kingdom Government at that time was so limited that a dwelling-house, Belmount House, situated on the lands to be developed into the University campus was used for the establishment of an anatomical school3. The present day department in Galway uses Belmount House as part of the teaching laboratories.

The main problem in Galway – and indeed its sister Colleges in Cork and Belfast - at this time, though, was that it was struggling to recover from the ravages of The Famine which had ended in 1850. In 1863 the President of QCG wrote in his report, “I have little doubt that the increase in the session on which I am reporting would have been considerably larger but for the excessive emigration which has taken place from this part of Ireland – a movement in which all classes participate, and the depression of the times, which has been felt with peculiar severity in this college”4. This is not to say that Galway had nothing to offer, for the academics in Galway at that time included William King who first published on and named ‘Neanderthal Man’, D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's father was appointed Professor of Greek in the same year as Cleland was appointed, and George Johnston Stoney, following his discovery of the electron had recently left Galway in order to take up position as Secretary of the Queen’s University of Ireland4.

The reports of the President of Queen’s College, Galway show that in the years following Cleland’s appointment numbers of students attending the College, and in particular anatomy lectures, increased as indeed did the number of anatomy lectures delivered. In the session 1862-1863 a total of 65 students attended anatomical instruction, which consisted of 84 lectures; during Cleland’s tenure, the average student number was 66, while the average hours of lectures had increased from 97 to 136. It may be surmised that students found in Cleland, if not a mentor, a teacher worthy of notice5. His publication record in this institution is impressive, perhaps even by today’s standards, with 34 papers published over the period 1854 -1877. Although his interests seem to be based on the skeletal system, in particular the vomer, ethmoid and maxillary bones, he had a prodigious intellect; his diverse interests are illustrated by the paper ‘Notes of the Dissection of a Female Beaver’6. His elevation to Professor from Demonstrator does not seem to have engendered a sense of academic lethargy as he continued to publish on varied topics. It will perhaps remain somewhat of a mystery how he accessed his specimens, particularly the female beaver and the investigative specimen which was the subject of the 1869 article ‘The Human Mesocolon, illustrated by that of the Wombat’7. Cleland was also a poet, publishing a volume of poems ‘Scala Naturae and other poems’ published in 18878.

That Cleland should choose to leave Britain for Ireland, and indeed for one of the new Colleges is perhaps not surprising. After all, neither Goodsir in Edinburgh nor Thompson in Glasgow showed signs of leaving their respective Chairs, and Cleland was an ambitious young man. The chance to make his name in a relatively un-established department was perhaps ideal. Cleland was appointed to the Chair in December 1863, though it was some weeks before the full scope of his duties became apparent. As he states, ”…no sooner had I gone to Galway than I discovered what had been carefully kept from me when a candidate for my appointment, namely, that not only had I to teach the whole of Anatomy and Physiology, but that I had thrown on my shoulders the larger part of the Clinical teaching in the College”2. Indeed, so unexpected was the enormity of his pre-clinical and clinical teaching along with his case-load that he felt he had two choices; to resign forthwith or to continue on. Thankfully he chose the latter.

Cleland’s time under Goodsir in Edinburgh seemed to have been the most pivotal of his career. He refers many times throughout his body of work to his mentor, and in his Memoirs and Memoranda in Anatomy co-authored by Mackay and Young9 he publishes his own sketch of Goodsir alongside a spirited physical description of the man during his prime.

A competent and caring clinician, following his appointment he set out, with the aid of the Mercy Sisters, to improve and modernise the Galway Workhouse Infirmary. His improvements included instrumentation, fittings and general patient care. Due to the expense of this, some Guardians of the Infirmary were rather displeased, although they were in the minority10. He seems to have been a forthright man, unafraid to air his views. In the College report for his last year in Ireland, he shows obvious irritation at the actions of the clinical teachers, “I am still of the opinion that, to do justice to the Medical School of Galway, it is first of all important that the Clinical Teachers should be under the control of the College, and liable to dismissal from their hospital appointments for faults connected with their teaching”5.

Apart from his academic work, Cleland’s works show an obvious concern for the student of anatomy, how he should conduct himself in the anatomy room (as there were no female students admitted during his tenure) and the desired atmosphere students should have. In Cleland’s Dissector he states that, ‘no student need ever be idle at the times when it unavoidably happens that he is unsupplied with a part, as, with a little tact he can always be learning from the dissections of others, without incommoding the dissectors who are at work’11.

The year of this publication saw Cleland leave Galway to take over from Thompson at Glasgow. He continued a series of improvements, which Thompson had initiated, including the study of development as integral to the proper study of anatomy. He continued his study of osteology and built up an impressive collection of crania. In his ‘Catalogue of Crania’12 published in 1909, the year of his retirement, he lists 272 specimens. However, not every specimen listed here resides in Glasgow, for the present author has recently re-discovered a collection of 19 specimens, believed to have been collected by Professor Cleland.

Keen to expand the horizons of anatomical knowledge, his publication co-authored with Mackay13 is the first anatomical text to include photographic plates. Perhaps more importantly, the appendix is entitled ‘On the utilization of Rontgen rays’. As Roentgen’s discovery was a mere year before printing, this is surely one of the first textbooks to look forward to the future of the then infant medical imaging technique. Cleland writes, ‘The part to be displayed … by the Rontgen rays is as yet only beginning to be seen, but sufficient progress has been accomplished to make it rash for any one to limit the amount of anatomical detail which may ultimately be displayed by their aid … it is fitting in this place to acknowledge the existence of an agent which may be utilized not merely in Surgery and Pathology, but in studying with accuracy the relations of healthy organs.’13

It seems to be his work on the seventh edition of ‘Quain’s Elements of Anatomy’14 that gained Cleland the recognition he was overdue, and he was elected FRS in 1872. The citation shows that Cleland was personally known by some of the leading scientific figures of the day, with TH Huxley, Allen Thomson, Sir W H Flower and St George Mivart amongst the notables who proposed Cleland’s Fellowship.Cleland was adamant that the proper role of the anatomist was as scientist. In his text ‘Animal Physiology: The Structures and Functions of the Human Body’15 he approaches the study of both Anatomy and Physiology (which was then often considered a special branch of Anatomy) in a rigorously scientific manner, using the chick, lamb, rabbit and dog as illustrative cases in his treatment of embryology. This text is perhaps rare in that it also contains a section on death, with the excellent closing sentence, “Decomposition is the infallible evidence of death”15.

In an address to the University of Glasgow in 1911 following his retirement Cleland states, “An anatomist in a University … is bound to raise to as high a level as possible the scientific standard, and teach Anatomy as a branch of Biology, an independent science, the aim of which is the knowledge of the laws of life for their own sake”, he goes further and proclaims a particularly Scottish approach to anatomy, “We never had Chairs of mere human Anatomy in Scotland. We have recognised that the laws of structure form a single science, and that we cannot understand human Anatomy without taking into consideration structure other than human, and also the development of structure”2.

Cleland is perhaps best remembered for his eponymous ligaments16 these anchoring ligaments hold the skin of the proximal and middle segments of the digits to the region of the proximal interphalangeal joints and lie anterior to the digital neurovascular bundles. These structures are still a source of interest in today’s literature, and are rightly regarded in the most recent work as being, “highly functional structures and are essential for normal cutaneous stability during digital movements.”17

He is also widely regarded to be the first to publish observations on the morphology of what is termed Arnold-Chiari Malformation (cerebellar ectopy), with his paper appearing in 188318. It would be some time before either Chiari19 or Arnold20 published their seminal articles.

The anatomist is often difficult to classify; whether as clinical or scientific, artistic or academic, Cleland can be rightly regarded as having excelled. On presentation of a portrait of Cleland by Sir George Reid to the University of Glasgow, Dr. Smith said of him, “…one can see … the nobleness and generosity of Dr. Cleland’s nature, the kindliness of his disposition, the depth of his affectionateness, the strength of his intellect, the poetic power which produced Scala Naturae, and the elevation of character which kept him free from low and sordid aims, and drew his students to him not only as a brilliant teacher, but a warm-hearted friend.”2

Notes Goodsir was appointed Professor of Anatomy at Edinburgh in 1846. He was held as a brilliant teacher, and his researches into the importance of the cell led Virchow to dedicate Cellular Pathologie to Goodsir as “one of the earliest and most acute observers of cell-life.” He was elected FRS in 1846.

Arnold was Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at Heidelberg at this time (1855). He was a celebrated anatomist, having previously held Chairs of Anatomy at Zurich (1835-1840), Freiburg im Breisgau (1840-1845) and Tübingen (1845-1852). He is best remembered for his work on the anatomy of the nervous system.

Hyrtl was an Austrian anatomist, had been appointed Professor of Anatomy in Prague in 1837, at the age of 26. Following the vacancy in Vienna in 1845, he was elected Professor of Anatomy. He was an internationally famous anatomy teacher, and held as the glory of the University of Vienna, being appointed Rector of the University at the Quincentenary in 1865. He was one of the first anatomists to endeavour to reform anatomical terminology with the publication of Onomatologia Anatomica (1880).

Edward, or Eduard, Weber was one of a famous pair of brother anatomists. Edward was appointed Professor of Anatomy at Leipzig in 1847. His brother Ernst had occupied the Chair in Leipzig from 1821-1843, moving from the Chair of Anatomy to that of Physics via that of Physiology. They were the first to describe vagal inhibition.

Muller was Professor of Anatomy at Berlin from 1833 until his death in April 1858. He is credited as being the first to use microscopy in pathology, and was active in the fields of embryology and comparative anatomy.

Balfour was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, gaining fellowship in 1833. After a period of medical practice, he began delivering botanical lectures, and was appointed professor of botany at Glasgow in 1841. In 1845 he moved to the same Chair at Edinburgh, was appointed head of the Royal Botanical Garden and also as Queen’s Botanist for Scotland. He published on myelogenous leukemia, naming Balfour’s Disease (chloroma). He was elected FRS in 1856.

von Martius was Professor of Botany at Munich. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society in 1838, and was then regarded by his peers as, “One of the most distinguished Naturalists of the present day”.

Sir James Young Simpson (1811-1870) was Professor of Midwifery at Edinburgh. The first to use ether in obstetric practice in the UK on January 19 1847, he is said to have experimented together with friends in sniffing various agents while in his flat in Edinburgh. He introduced chloroform to practice on November 8 1847.

King was the first Professor of Geology in QCG, and at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1863 King declared that a skull found in Feldhofer represents a separate species of Homo, which he proposed as Homo neanderthalensis

Huxley, known as ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’ was a talented comparative anatomist, focusing on invertebrates.

Thomson was appointed Professor of anatomy at the Marishal College and the University of Aberdeen in 1839. He took the Chair of Physiology at Edinburgh in 1842, moving to Glasgow to take that of Anatomy in 1848, a position he held until 1877. He worked with Cleland on Quain’s Anatomy.

Flower was Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons, London from 1870-1884, he then moved to become Curator of the Natural History Museum until 1898.

Mivart was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at St Mary's Hospital Medical School 1862-1884; he held the Presidency of the Biological Section of the British Academy in 1879. He occupied the Chair of Philosophy of Natural History at Louvain in 1890-1893. A convert to Catholicism in 1884, he became a prominent member of the governing council of the Catholic Union, and was conferred with a Ph.D. by Pope Pius IX in 1876 for his reply to Darwin. However, later efforts to reconcile his religion with his Darwinism led to his excommunication in 1900.

REFERENCES 1. Cleland, J.B. The Ancient Family of Cleland; being an account of the Clelands of that ilk, in the County of Lanark; of the branches of Faskins, Monkland, etc.; and of others of the name. 1905. London. Hicks, Wilkinson & Sears. 113p.

2. MacAlister Sir D. John Cleland, Recognition of Distinguished Services. 1911. Glasgow: James MacLehose & Sons.

3. Queen's Colleges Commission. Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to inquire into the progress and condition of the Queen's Colleges at Belfast, Cork, and Galway: with Minutes of evidence, Documents, and Tables and returns. 1858. Dublin: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

4. Berwick E. The Report of the President of Queen’s College, Galway, For the Year 1862 - 1863. 1863. Dublin: Alexander Thomson.

5. Berwick E. The Report of the President of Queen’s College, Galway, For the Year 1876 – 1877. 1877. Dublin: Alexander Thomson.

6. Cleland J. Notes of the Dissection of a Female Beaver. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal 1860; 14.

7. Cleland J. The Human Mesocolon, illustrated by that of the Wombat. Brit Assoc Rep 1869; 120.

8. Cleland J. Scala Naturae, and other poems. 1887. Edinburgh: David Douglas.

9. Cleland J., Mackay J.Y., Young, R.B. Memoirs and Memoranda in Anatomy. Volume I. 1889. Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate. 187p.

10. Murray J.P. Galway: a medico-social history. 1994. Galway: Kenny's Bookshop and Art Gallery. Pp 77-230.

11. Cleland J. A Directory for the Dissection of the Human Body. 1877. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea. 182p.

12. Cleland J. Catalogue of Crania in the museum of the anatomical Department of the University of Glasgow. 1909. Glasgow. Robert Maclehose & Co. 22p.

13. Cleland J., Mackay J.Y. Human Anatomy. General and descriptive for the use of students. 1896. Glasgow: James MacLehose & Sons. 833p.

14. Sharpey W., Thomson A., Cleland J. (eds.) Quain’s Elements of Anatomy. 7th Ed. 1867. London: Longmans, Green and Co.

15. Cleland J. Animal Physiology. The Structures and Functions of the Human Body. 1874. Glasgow: William Collins, Sons & Company. 325p.

16. Cleland J. On the cutaneous ligaments of the phalanges. J Anat Physiol 1878; 12: 526 – 527

17. Chrysopoulo M.T., McGrouther D.A., Jeschke M.G., Kaufman B.R. Cleland's ligaments: an anatomic study. Plast Reconstr Surg 2002; 109(2): 566-572.

18. Cleland J. Contribution to the study of spina bifida, encephalocele and anencephalus. Journal of Anatomy and Physiology 1883; 17: 257.

19. Chiari H. Umber Veränderungen des Kleinhirns infolge von Hydrocephalie des Grosshirns. Deutsche medicinische Wochenschrift, Berlin 1891; 17: 1172-1175.

20. Arnold J. Myelocyste, Transposition von Gewebskeimen und Sympodie. Beiträge zur pathologischen Anatomie und zur allgemeinen Pathologie 1894; 16: 1-28. Back to December Contents