Nathaniel St. André
Nathaniel St. André (* 1680 in Switzerland ; † 1776 ) was a Swiss anatomist and obstetrician who lived and practiced in London .
Life
1680-1726
Nathaniel St. André was born in Switzerland and came from a poor background. In his youth he is said to have come to London as a servant of a wealthy Jewish family. He later made his way as a private tutor, teaching German and French and working as a fencing or dance teacher. When St. André was injured while fencing by one of his students and brought to a practicing surgeon, he was so impressed by his work that he decided to become a doctor himself.
He was trained by a London surgeon, worked at the polyclinic at Westminister Hospital and eventually opened his own practice.
In 1723 he published an English version of the text Traité des opérations de chirurgie by the French surgeon Rene Jacques Croissant de Garengeot (1688-1759).
Although St. André did not belong to any academy, never obtained an academic degree or a medical degree, and was also not officially established as a bath , the Hanoverian King George I appointed him royal anatomist in May 1723 and consulted him personally in 1726 for reasons that are not known to us. St. André was very unpopular in medical circles in London; it was assumed that he only got in touch with the king because of his knowledge of German.
In 1725, St. André filed a lawsuit against unknown persons for attempted poisoning because he stated that he should be poisoned. The proceedings were discontinued without result.
Mary Toft's fraud affair (1726)
In 1726 St. André was involved in the fraud affair of the English maid Mary Toft . Toft became a national celebrity for allegedly giving birth to rabbits , which sparked widespread medical and public controversy and generated enormous public interest. On November 26, 1726, St. André held an anatomical demonstration in London in the presence of the king and heir to the throne to explain the "medical sensation". He also published a paper describing the events so far.
Although quickly cleared up as a fraud in the end, the event was the talk of the town for weeks and the subject of countless newspaper and magazine articles, caricatures and pamphlets . Because of his gullibility, St. André was exposed to public scorn and ridicule and his medical career was ruined. Although he was allowed to keep his title as anatomist at the royal court, he was no longer received at the court and Georg I had his competencies, tasks and salaries withdrawn.
1726-1776
On May 17, 1730, St. André married in Heston, near Hounslow in Middlesex, the wealthy Lady Elizabeth Capel, called Betty Molyneux, which made him financially independent. She was the widow of Samuel Molyneux , who died on April 13, 1728 at the age of 39, who was also involved in the Mary Toft fraud affair and who was the patient of St. André. The marriage caused another scandal as St. André was now suspected of poisoning Molyneux. Although the suspicion never became substantive, Queen Caroline released Betty Molyneux from the social circles of the London royal court, forcing the couple to retreat to the country.
In 1750 they moved to Southampton , where they lived until their death.
Fonts (selection)
- A short narrative of an extraordinary delivery of rabbets performed by Mr. John Howard, Surgeon at Guilford. 2nd Edition. London 1726. (English; digitized at Internet Archive )
- Rene Jacques Croissant de Garengeot : A treatise of surgical operations. According to the mechanism of the parts of the human body. 1723. (Translation from French into English by Nathaniel St. André; original French title: Traité des opérations de chirurgie. Suivant la méchanique des parties du corps humain. )
literature
- Jan Bondeson : A cabinet of medical curiosities. Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca (New York) 1997, ISBN 0-8014-3431-9 . (English; digitized excerpt from Google Books )
- Dennis Todd: St André, Nathanael (1679 / 80–1776). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2008
- D'Arcy Power: St. André, Nathanael . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 50: Russians - Scobell. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1897, pp. 119 - 120 (English).
- James Caulfield: Portraits, memoirs, and characters, of remarkable persons. From the revolution in 1688 to the end of the reign of George II. Collected from the most authentic accounts extant. Volume 2. London 1819, pp. 190 f. (English; [digitized extract] from Google books)
- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg : gullibility, superstition and fanaticism. Göttingen pocket calendar 1787. Göttingen 1787. ( digitized , PDF file)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Jan Bondeson: A cabinet of medical curiosities. Ithaca 1997, p. 125. (English)
- ↑ BIUM Paris.
- ^ National Library of Australia
- ^ Leslie Stephen: Dictionary of national biography. New York City 1897, p. 119. (English)
- ^ Jan Bondeson: A cabinet of medical curiosities. Ithaca 1897, p. 126. (English)
- ^ A b James Caulfield: Portraits, memoirs, and characters, of remarkable persons. From the revolution in 1688 to the end of the reign of George II. Volume 2. London 1819, p. 191 f. (English)
- ^ Jan Bondeson: A cabinet of medical curiosities. Ithaca 1997, pp. 128/129 (English)
- ^ Nathaniel St. André: A short narrative of an extraordinary delivery of rabbets performed by Mr. John Howard, Surgeon at Guilford. 2nd Edition. London 1726. (English; digitized from Internet Archive ).
- ^ Jan Bondeson: A cabinet of medical curiosities. Ithaca 1997, p. 141. (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | St. André, Nathaniel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss anatomist and obstetrician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1680 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Switzerland |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1776 |