John Ranby

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Hogarth The end of the libertine, for which he allegedly took the features of John Ranby as a model (excerpt).

John Ranby (* 1703 in St. Giles in the Fields in Middlesex , † August 28, 1773 in Chelsea , London ) was an English doctor , military surgeon and professional politician.

Life

John Ranby, son of a landlord from St. Giles-in-the-Fields in Middlesex (the place is now in the district of Holborn in London's West End) began on April 7, 1715 an apprenticeship as a bath and surgeon. On October 7, 1722, he passed the surgical examination.

After the exam, John Ranby opened up an unusually fast career , accompanied by a social rise. On November 30, 1724 he was accepted as a fellow in the Royal Society . In 1738 he was appointed "Surgeon-in-ordinary" and in 1740 he was appointed "Sergeant Surgeon". In May 1743 John Ranby was appointed principal sergeant surgeon, a position equivalent to that of protosurgeon in the Holy Roman Empire . In the same year he accompanied George II on a campaign to Germany as part of the War of the Austrian Succession . In the battle of Dettingen he took care of the actual commander in chief, the Duke of Cumberland, who was wounded in the knee by a musket ball .

After the war, Ranby obtained a parliamentary act in 1745, which resulted in the surgeon being separated from the barbers in Great Britain and Hanover . Ranby became the first chairman of the "Surgeons-Company", which was then founded. Ranby's chair burned in the college when it was bombed in 1941. The silver cup donated by John Ranby is still in the possession of the Royal College of Surgeons of England . On May 13, 1752, John Ranby took over the management of Chelsea Hospital, a position he held until his death on August 28, 1773. John Ranby died in his apartment at Chelsea Hospital and was buried in the hospital cemetery.

Private life

John Ranby married his patient Jane in 1729, the daughter of the Honorable Dacre Barrett-Lennard. The marriage proposal was made while the wound was being treated. The marriage does not seem to have been very happy. John Ranby had two illegitimate children, Hannah and George Osborne. George Osborne was given permission to use his father's full name in 1756. When John Ranby Jr. (1743-1820) he became a well-known political journalist.

John Ranby in Literature and Fine Arts

John Rabby's Chiswick country house seen from the window of his neighbor William Hogarth .

Between 1733 and 1745, John Ranby practiced and lived on Bond Street . Henry Fielding wrote in his novel Amelia in Bond Street live the "most eminent Surgeon of the Kingdom, and perhaps of the World". Fielding also mentioned John Ranby in his novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (6 volumes, 1749, German 1771).

John Ranby owned a country estate in Chiswick in the neighborhood of the painter and engraver William Hogarth . In 1750, Hogarth made a small etching , only published by the widow in 1781 , which depicts the country residence of John Ranby seen from his window. According to tradition, Hogarth gave his libertine the features of his neighbor John Ranby in his episode The Rake's Progress . Otherwise, no portraits of John Ranby have survived.

The Ranby Cup

On the occasion of his appointment as the first chairman of the "Company of Surgeons", John Ranby donated a silver lidded goblet, which is still in the possession of the Royal College of Surgeons today. The crowned cup with two handles is almost 40 cm high and has a diameter of around 20 cm. It was made for the stamps after 1745 by the London silversmith Eliza Godfrey (hallmark EG). The Latin inscription under the engraved coat of arms of the "Company of Surgeons" reads: The July primo, MDCCXLV / Hoc Qualecunque suae in Fratres / Observantiae Monumentum / Dignissimae Chirurgorum / Londinensium Societati / Consecrat Joannes Ranby.

Publications

  • A contribution to the Philosophical Transactions. 1731, vol. xxxvii.
  • Three Curious Dissections by John Ranby, esq., Surgeon to His Majesty's Household and FRS 1728. London 1740.
  • The Method of Treating Gunshot Wounds. John and Paul Knapton, London 1744, (16).
  • Advice to John Ranby, Esq. principal serjeant surgeon to His Majesty, and FRS: with a Narrative of the last illness of the Earl of Orford, from May 1744 to the day of his decease, 18 March following. W. Bickerton, London 1745.
  • An Expostulatory address to John Ranby Esq. ... occasioned by his treatise on gunshot-wounds, and his narrative of the Earl of Orford's last illness: with remarks on his adviser etc. John and Paul Knapton, London.
  • An appendix to the narrative of the last illness of the right honorable the Earl of Orford: occasioned by the letter from a physician in town to another at Bath. John and Paul Knapton, London.
  • A second letter from a physician in town to another at Bath; occasioned by Serjeant Ranby's appendix to his narrative ... M. Cooper, London 1745.
  • The True Account of all the Transactions before the Right Honorable the Lords and others Commissioners for the affairs of Chelsea Hospital as far as relates to the Admission and Dismission of Sam. Lee, Surgeon. John and Paul Knapton, London 1754, (2) 65, (3).

meaning

John Ranby's position and importance in the history of medicine in the 18th century was based primarily on technical brilliance and his professional policy. The publications were of less importance for the aftermath. In his main work "The Method of Treating Gun-Shot Wounds" he dealt with the experiences he gained in the treatment of gunshot wounds during the War of the Austrian Succession in Germany.

literature

  • D'Arcy Powe: John Ranby . In: Dictionary of National Biography . 1885–1900, volume 47
  • A. JW .: "Observables" at the Royal College of Surgeons: 2. The Ranby Cup. In: Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Volume 2, Number 3, March 1948, pp. 156-158, PMID 19309838 , PMC 1940189 (free full text).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Peter Blandy, John Lumley, John Stuart Penton Lumley: The Royal College of Surgeons of England: 200 years of history at the millennium, Wiley-Blackwell, May 9, 2000, p. 10.
  2. ^ D'Arcy Powe: Dictionary of National Biography, keyword John Ranby. 1885-1900, volume 47.
  3. ^ Henry Fielding, Amelia, Broadview Press, Aug. 25, 2010, p. 231.
  4. ^ John Peter Blandy, John Lumley, John Stuart Penton Lumley: The Royal College of Surgeons of England: 200 years of history at the millennium, Wiley-Blackwell, May 9, 2000, p. 10.
personal data
SURNAME Ranby, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English surgeon
DATE OF BIRTH 1703
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Middlesex (now part of London )
DATE OF DEATH August 28, 1773
Place of death London