Frederick Gymer Parsons

Frederick Gymer Parsons ( 1863 - March 11, 1943 ) was an anatomist at the University of London .

Parsons spent his scientific life at St Thomas Hospital, more precisely its Medical School . From 1886 to 1929 he was first a lecturer and then professor of anatomy. His first publications dealt with comparative anatomy , he became better known internally through a work on myology (muscle theory). He dealt with the muscles of different animal species in contributions to the Proceedings of the Zoological Society . At the same time he published work on the skeleton and joints in the Journal of Anatomy . He also dealt with human anatomy in works on the appendix or parotid gland . With William Wright he brought out a textbook on dissection . In 1915 his wife died in an accident.

From 1889 until his death he was a member of the Anatomical Society founded in 1887 ; from 1895 to 1898 he was its secretary, its treasurer from 1903 to 1908, its president from 1912 to 1914. In 1927 he was elected President of the Anthropology Section of the British Association , which met in Leeds .

Parson also examined human remains from the early Anglo-Saxon period , particularly their skulls. He collected 66 skulls in order to publish an atlas on this basis. During the First World War , he measured the skulls of German prisoners of war and believed that he could prove that the "Nordic element" was only detectable in a narrow strip on the coasts and in the Rhine area. He also published a study on the Earlier Inhabitants of London on this basis . In a lecture he thought he could even make out how the skull shape would develop in England of the future. When he had doubts about the age of the Cheddar Man , he replied: "I assure members of the Institute that my regard for this skull is purely platonic."

In 1936 he published a three-volume work on the history of the hospital in which he worked all his life.

In his retirement, he not only looked after his garden, but also undertook smaller archaeological excavations. After the war he lived with his son and his wife in Thame .

Publications (selection)

• with William Anderson : On the myology of the sciuromorphine and hystricomorphine rodents , London 1894.
• with William Wright: Practical Anatomy. The Student's Dissecting Manual , Arnold, 1912.
• The Earlier Inhabitants of London , Kennikat, 1927.

literature

• Obituary, In: Journal of Anatomy 77.4 (1943) 310-313. PMC 1252735 (free full text)