John Burton (medic)
John Burton (born June 9, 1710 in Colchester , † January 19, 1771 in Micklegate, York ) was an English doctor and antiquarian.
Life
John Burton was born the son of a London merchant. He attended the Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood and then studied at St. John's College , Cambridge, where he passed an exam in 1733. He then studied medicine at the University of Leiden , in Paris and Reims. He returned to England as a doctor, married Mary Henson from York and settled in Wakefield. In 1738 he moved to York, where he helped found the York County Hospital and worked primarily as an obstetrician.
Burton was known among colleagues for his argumentative and resentful personality, as he occasionally spoke out bluntly about colleagues. The target of his polemics was in particular the gynecologist William Smellie , who from 1752 published his three-volume standard work on obstetrics, the "Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery".
In 1751 Burton himself published the book “An essay towards a complete new system of midwifery”, apparently in a hurry and worried that his competitor Smellie might get ahead of him, because he wrote: “I was informed that someone else was there, mine To publish innovation together with own work; that made me want to publish it myself. ”Burton, who had developed a new type of obstetric forceps , argued for the first time in the history of medicine that puerperal fever is caused by infection, and he described methods of caesarean section . The book was illustrated with copperplate engravings by George Stubbs , who was then teaching anatomy at York County Hospital. In contrast to Smellie's book, which was very well received by the professional world, the reviews of Burton's book remained rather cool.
Burton died on January 17, 1771. He was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Micklegate .
Burton and Lawrence Stars
Burton was a supporter of the Tories , which he supported all his life. During the county elections of 1741 he gave massive support to the opponent of Whig candidate Jacques Sterne, Anglican clergyman and uncle of Lawrence Sterne . Stars lost the election, which earned Burton the Sternes' hostility. In the literature on Sternes novel The Life and Views of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman , it is sometimes suggested that Burton was the role model for the choleric obstetrician Dr. Slop in Sternes novel. Sterne describes the doctor as an incompetent quack who broke the hero's nose with forceps when he was born. In a list of the Guardian's Ten of the best bad doctors, Slop ranks third.
Antiquarian research
Burton, who at Cambridge et al. Having studied Latin and Greek, in addition to his work at York County Hospital, he looked through and saved documents and written sources of various kinds relating to the church history of his home region from the Christianization of England to the conquest of the island by William the Conqueror . His antiquarian activity is related to the newly awakened interest in architectural and written evidence of its own history in the Age of Enlightenment .
The subject of his research was the securing of files and documents from church institutions such as monasteries, churches, monasteries and hospices . Many churches were destroyed after the abolition of monasticism and the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII . A number of monastery churches had been rededicated as parish churches, but most were demolished, burned down or used as barns and stables. Burton was able to rely on the five-volume compendium "Antiquities Ecclesiastical of the City of York ..." which James Torre (1649-1699) had published in 1691, but which he does not name as a source. For each of the listed buildings there is a short topographical description, notes about special features of the buildings, such as B. Donors coats of arms, a list of the land holdings of the individual institution, the legacies regarding masses to be held for the deceased, lists of the priors or the prioresses as well as copies or excerpts from the cartularia , from ecclesiastical edicts, papal bulls, etc. As many of the documents evaluated by Burton no longer exist in the original, his Monasticon Eboracense remains an important historical source.
The first volume of the Monasticon Eboracense was printed in 1758. A second volume had been announced by Burton, for which he had already brought together extensive material, mainly from Torres' preparatory work. In 1759, however, only an eight-page print came about with excerpts from a number of papal bulls, royal edicts and documents all relating to Whitby Abbey . After that, the project was apparently discontinued.
Fonts
- An essay towards a complete new system of midwifery. London 1751.
- Full title: An Essay towards a complete new system of midwifry, theoretical and practical: Together with the descriptions, causes, and methods of removing, or ... and eighteen copper-plates; in four parts .
- Special edition. The Classics of Obstetrics & Gynecology Library. 1995.
- A letter to William Smellie, MD containing critical and practical remarks upon his treatise on the theory and practice of midwifery. Wherein the ... mistakes and dangerous methods of practice ... London: printed for W. Owen 1753.
- New edition: Gale ECCO 2010. ISBN 978-1-17099012-4
- Monasticon Eboracense and the ecclesiastical history of Yorkshire; Containing an account of the first introduction and progress of Christianity ... . 2 volumes. York 1758. 1759.
- Two Tracts on Yorkshire Antiquities in the Archeologia . 1768-1771.
literature
- Helen King: Midwifery, Obstetrics and the Rise of Gynecology. The Uses of a Sixteenth-Century Compendium . 2007. ISBN 978-0-7546-5396-7
- PM Dunn: Dr John Burton (1710-1771) of York and his obstetric treatise . Perinatal lessons from the past. In: ADC Fetal & Neonatal Edition. 2001. Vol. 84. Issue 1. [1]
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ "I was informed, that another person was about to publish my improvement with some other works of his own; this put me upon the thoughts of publishing them myself ... "Quoted from Dunn 2001.
- ^ Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ John Mullan: Ten of the best bad doctors. In: The Guardian, June 12, 2010. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
- ^ Antiquities Ecclesiastical of the City of York concerning Churches, Parochial Conventual Chapels, Hospitals, and Gilds, and in them Chantries and Interments, also Churches Parochial and Conventual within the Archdeaconry of the West Riding, collected out of Publick Records and Registers, AD 1691 .
- ^ GWS Barrow: An unpublished brieve ov Malcom IV. In: The Scottish Historical Review. Vol. 84. No. 217 April 2005. pp. 85-87. Retrieved July 3, 2015
- ^ GWS Barrow: An unpublished brieve of Malcolm IV. In: The Scottish Historical Review. Vol. 84 April 2005. pp. 85-95.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Burton, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English doctor and antiquarian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 9, 1710 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Colchester |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 19, 1771 |
| Place of death | Micklegate, York |