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ELLIOTSON, John (1791-1868)

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Metadata

Born: 1791

Died: 1868

Postnominals: MD

Editorial Description

Edin 1810, LRCP 1810, MB Cambridge 1816 and MD 1821, FRCP 1822, FRS 1829; eldest son of a prosperous chemist and druggist of Southwark, who was also one of the governors of the Surrey Dispensary; studied in Edin, 1805- 10, and Jesus College Cambridge, 1810-13; elected assistant phys to St. Thomas's Hosp, 1817, and phys, 1823; lectured at Grainger's School of Anatomy, 1817-23; appointed prof of med, Univ of London, 1832; established Univ Coll Hosp, where for many years he attracted to his lectures unrivalled numbers of students. A materialist and daring innovator, he advocated auscultation, made early use of the stethoscope, and was largely responsible for asserting in the London hospitals the Parisian clinical med of Laennec; tireless, he synthesized in several volumes all the med knowledge of his time as well as carrying on a large private medical practice; on the committee of the SDUK; pres Roy Med & Chirurg Soc, 1830s; interested in acupuncture; forced to resign his professorship in 1838 over the med profession's opposition to his advocacy of mesmerism, with which CHENEVIX acquainted him in 1823; established the London Mesmeric Infirmary in Weymouth St, London, 1849, and invested in it most of his time and money. Attracted to spiritualism in 1863, he founded with Samuel Carter HALL in 1866 the Spiritual Athenaeum, Sloane St-- a society for the propagation of spiritualism. Became a corresp M EDIN PHREN SOC, Nov 1822 and established the LONDON PHREN SOC in 1823; a familiar figure in London's prisons, measuring heads of inmates; supplied G. MACKENZIE and G. COMBE with testimonials, 1836, but increasingly disapproved of the 'Edinburgh School', which he saw as selling out to conventional religion; commenced the ZOIST in 1844 for the investigation and propagation of mesmerism and phrenology. (DNB; MEB; Morning Post, 3 Aug 1868; Reece's Monthly Gaz Health, 14 [1829]: 753-4; Court Mag, 6 [1835]: 175; LANCET, 8 June 1833: 341-4; Med Times & Gaz, 8 Aug 1868: 166; and H. Williams, 'John Elliotson', in his Doctors Differs [1946]: 23- 91).

Works as Listed by Roger Cooter (1989)

Editorial Information

Identifier 363.
Type Person
Source Roger Cooter, Phrenology in the British Isles (1989)
PDF page 122
Printed page 117
Database ID 1147
Original Transcription 
363. ELLIOTSON, John (1791-1868), MD Edin 1810, LRCP 1810, MB
Cambridge 1816 and MD 1821, FRCP 1822, FRS 1829; eldest son of
a prosperous chemist and druggist of Southwark, who was also one
of the governors of the Surrey Dispensary; studied in Edin, 1805-
10, and Jesus College Cambridge, 1810-13; elected assistant phys to
St. Thomas's Hosp, 1817, and phys, 1823; lectured at Grainger's
School of Anatomy, 1817-23; appointed prof of med, Univ of London,
1832; established Univ Coll Hosp, where for many years he attracted
to his lectures unrivalled numbers of students. A materialist and
daring innovator, he advocated auscultation, made early use of the


stethoscope, and was largely responsible for asserting in the London
hospitals the Parisian clinical med of Laennec; tireless, he synthesized in several volumes all the med knowledge of his time as well
as carrying on a large private medical practice; on the committee of
the SDUK; pres Roy Med & Chirurg Soc, 1830s; interested in acupuncture; forced to resign his professorship in 1838 over the med
profession's opposition to his advocacy of mesmerism, with which
CHENEVIX acquainted him in 1823; established the London Mesmeric
Infirmary in Weymouth St, London, 1849, and invested in it most of
his time and money. Attracted to spiritualism in 1863, he founded
with Samuel Carter HALL in 1866 the Spiritual Athenaeum, Sloane St--
a society for the propagation of spiritualism. Became a corresp M
EDIN PHREN SOC, Nov 1822 and established the LONDON PHREN
SOC in 1823; a familiar figure in London's prisons, measuring heads
of inmates; supplied G. MACKENZIE and G. COMBE with testimonials,
1836, but increasingly disapproved of the 'Edinburgh School', which
he saw as selling out to conventional religion; commenced the ZOIST
in 1844 for the investigation and propagation of mesmerism and phrenology. (DNB; MEB; Morning Post, 3 Aug 1868; Reece's Monthly
Gaz Health, 14 [1829]: 753-4; Court Mag, 6 [1835]: 175; LANCET,
8 June 1833: 341-4; Med Times & Gaz, 8 Aug 1868: 166; and
H. Williams, 'John Elliotson', in his Doctors Differs [1946]: 23-
91).