William Cheselden

William Cheselden deserves far more recognition for his studies than is apparently given. Born October 19, 1688 in Somerby, Leicestershire, Cheselden achieved notable firsts in the history of medicine. Cheselden began his medical career as an apprentice to Leicester surgeon, Mr. Wilkes. He was also given the opportunity to study under the great anatomist William Cowper. Alongside anatomy, Cheselden studied with lithotomist James Ferne at St. Thomas' Hospital.

William learned well and by 1711 he had already earned the title of a lecturer in anatomy. By 1713, he'd written 'Anatomy of the Human Body' and in 1718, he was named assistant surgeon at St. Thomas's and selected as a principal surgeon the following year. More renown ensued for Cheselden in 1727 when Queen Caroline appointed him her surgeon. This was an extremely prestigious affair for William and would have assisted his career immensely. As a surgeon, Cheselden was no less skilled. He became adept at performing a lithotomy, a procedure used to extract bladder stones. Not only was William able to perform this operation in as little as 54 seconds, he invented a technique ( involving a lateral rather than a superpubic approach,) which eventually became adopted by surgeons throughout Europe!

In 1728 , Cheselden removed the cataracts from a thirteen year old boy who had been blind since birth. The surgery restored the boy's vision and with this achievement in hand William devised a method for treating some forms of blindness.

Cheselden's success however, did not end there! In 1733, William introduced another book 'Osteographia,' which along with his first book was used by students for almost a century! Cheselden died on April 10th 1752 at Bath in Somersetshire. He left behind a legacy of medical accomplishments for future surgeons to follow. Without people like Cheselden, we certainly would be deficient in today's modern medicine.

First's like Cheselden's help to put Leicestershire on the map. We have super history in terms of medical achievements and scientific firsts. The University of Leicester continues these scientific firsts, providing importants fund and facilities that help to create new methods and discoveries. One such discovery was made by Professor Alec Jeffreys when he created Genetic Fingerprinting.

This DNA fingerprinting is now in use worldwide and has caught many criminals, as well as freeing many imprisoned falsely. If you'd like to read about the first murderer caught by Jeffreys Genetic Fingerprinting. You can do so here: DNA Fingerprinting - The Capture of a Murderer.

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