~nurnai (tommunicattona. · richard wiseman, of thundersley hall, essex. certain it is that sir...

MAROlI,· 1912. No. 3.

~nurnaI

~rigina[ (tommunicattona.

RICHARD WISEMAN, SERJEANT-SURGEON TO CHARLES n.

By MAJOR H. A. L. HOWELL. Royal Army Medical Corps.

IN the following memoir the writer hopes to excite the interest of his brother officers in the life and work of one of the greatest of the English surgeons of his time, a Royalist Army Surgeon.

There is some uncertainty as to the parentage of Wiseman. After much research Sir Thomas Longmore concluded that he had sprung from some citizen family of London. Some authorities, however, think it probable that he was an illegitimate son of Sir Richard Wiseman, of Thundersley Hall, Essex.

Certain it is that Sir Robert Wisem.an, a member of the same Essex family, acknowledged" Richard Wiseman, Esq., one of His Majesty's Chirurgeons-in-Ordinary" to be his kinsman. and a descendant of his family, and granted him permission to use and bear the coat-of-arms and crest of his family. The College of Arms does not, however, consider this any proof of relationship.

There is some evidence to support the opinion that Wiseman was nephew to Mr. Edward Edgenian, Secretary to Lord Clarendon, Lord High Chancellor and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Charles .the Second.

The date and place of Wiseman's birth is unknown. He was probably born between the years 1621 and 1623.

Wiseman was apprenticed to Richard Smith. Surgeon, some time in the year Hi37; for,.in that year,his master paid the usual fee of half-a"crown to the Barber-Surgeons' Company on his being

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250 Richard Wiseman, SerJeant-Surgeon to Oha1'les n.

bound as an apprentice. At that time the term of apprenticeship was seven years and the apprentice was usually bound at the age of 14 or 15 years. A barber-surgeon could not practice until he was free and no surgeon's apprentice could get his freedom before the age of 21.

It was not at all uncommon at this period for military officers and surgeons to serve at one time in the Navy and at another in the Army. In time of peace many sought experience of war in the armies and navies of friendly nations. At this time there was no standing army in England; troops being raised only when they were required for active service in the field and afterwards disbanded. Military knowledge could therefore only be continuously pursued in the service of foreign Powers.

There appears to be little doubt that the earlier years of Wiseman's practice as a surgeon and perhaps his apprenticeship (for it has heen suggested that Richard Smith was a Naval Surgeon) were spent on board the ships of the Dutch Royal Navy. All the cases of wounds and injuries described by Wiseman in his treatises as having occurred before he served in the Army were treated on board ship. We can also gather from the same source that his service as a Dutch Naval Surgeon was of long duration, and that he had during that time been in many naval engagements.

It was, however. as a Royalist Army Surgeon that Wiseman gained his fame. On the outbreak of the Great Civil War in England most of the Englishmen who were in the service of foreign Powers returned to England and took up arms on one side or the other.

Wiseman makes no reference in his writings to any of those wounded in the earlier battles of the war. He does not appear to have joined the Royal Army until the end of the year 1643. In 1644 he was on active service in the field with the Royalist forces in Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. At this time the Prince of Wales was in chief command of the Royal Army in this part of England.

Wiseman was at the surprise of the forts at , Weymouth on February 9, 1644-45, and was amongst those besieged in that town. He narrowly escaped capture when the town was taken by the Parliamentarians under Colonel Sydenham, brother to Sydenham the physician. He was probably Surgeon to Colonel Ballard's regiment, for all the wounds he describes at this time were in men belonging to this Corps. He was with Goring in the attack on Melcombe Regis and ,then went to the West of




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H. A. L. Howell 251

England and took part in the siege of Taunton and the fighting at . Truro. Some idea of his experiences during this part of his life may be gathered from a few excerpts from his tieatises~

" At the Siege of Melcomb Regis, a Foot-souldier of Lieutenant C010ne11 Ballard's, by the grazing of a Cannon-shot, had a great part of his Forehead carried off, and the Skull fractured into many pieces, and some of it driven with the Hairy scalp into the Brain. The man fell down as dead, but after a while moved; and an hour or two after, his Fellow-souldiers seeing him endeavour to rise, fetcht me to him. I pulled out the pieces of Bones and lacerated Flesh from amongst the Brain, in which they were intangled, and drest him up with soft folded Linen dipped in a Cephalick Balsam, and with Emplaster and Bandage bound him up, supposing I should never dress him any more. Yet he lived 17 days; and the 15 day walkt from that great Corner-fort over against Portland to the Bridge which separates Weymouth from Melcomb Regis, onely led by the hand by some one of his Fellow-souldiers. The second day after he fell into a Spasmus, and died, howling like a Dog; as most of those do who have been so wounded."

"At the siege of Weymouth I was called at break of day to an Irish-man of Lieutenant-Col. Ballard's Regiment, who shooting off his Musket, it broke, and tore his Hand to pieces after a strange manner. I, designing to cut off his Hand, sent presently to my Quarters to one of my Servants to bring both Saw and Knife, also Dressings, of which at those times we had always ready. They being brought, I took a red Ribbon from off my Case of Lancets, and bound it about his Arm some four fingers' breadth above the Carpus; and having cut the~Flesh round off, I bared the Bones and separated the flesh between them. Then I sawed off the Bones, and untied my Ligature, and bringing down the musculous Flesh and Skin over the end of them, without making any crosse Stitch, I drew up that Stump with Restrictives and good Bandage, and returned again to my Quarters. I had not been one hour gone, before I was again sent for to this Souldier, he being (as the Messenger said) grievously pained. I wondred at it, and hastned away: but before I came to his Hut, I heard him crying. I enquiring the cause, it was some while before he would answer me. But at last he told me, he was unable to endure that red Ribbon that I tied his Arm with. I was at first surprized to think I should leave the Ligature upon his Arm, that being a sure way to bring a Mortification upon the Part. I therefore put my Hand in my Pocket; and feeling the Ribbon on the case of Lancets, showed it to him. He seemed at first to doubt it,




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252 Richard Wiseman, Ser:jeant-8urgeon to Oharles IT.

but after he saw it was so, he laught, and was from that time in ease. Two days after, our men were surprized and chased. out of tbe Town and Chappell-fort, I was at the same time dressing the wounded men in the Town almost upder the Chappe11-fort, and hearing a woman cry Fly! Fly! the Fort is taken, I turned aside a little amazed toward the Line, not knowing what had been done; but getting up the Works, I saw our people running away, and those of the Fort shooting at them. I slipt down this Work into the Ditch, and got out of the Trench j and as I began to run, hearing one call Chirurgeon, I turned back, and seeing a man holding up a stumped Arm, I thought it was the hish-man whom I had so lately dismembred: whereupon I returned and helpt him up. We ran together, it being within half a Musket-shot of the Enemies' Fort; he out-ran me quite. I afterwards cured him in a few weeks."

Here is' Wiseman's account of one of his cases at Taunton. "At the Siege of Taunton one of Colone11 Arundell's men, in storming the Works, was shot in the Face by Case-shot. He fell down, and in the Retreat was carried off among the dead, and laid into an empty house by the way, untill the next day j when in-the morning early, the Colone11 marching by that house heard a knocking within against the Door. Some of the Officers desiring to know what it was lookt in, and saw this man standing by the Door without Eye, Face, Nose or Mouth. The Col. sent to me (my Quarters being nearest) to dresse the man. I went, but was somewhat troubled wbere to begin. The Door consisted of two Hatches; the uppermost was open, and the man stood leaning upon the other p'art of the Door which was shut. His Face, with his Eyes, Nose, Mouth, and forepart of the Jaws, with the Chin, was shot away, and the remaining parts of them driven in. One part of the Jaw hung down by his Throat, and the other part pasht into it. I saw the Brain working out underneath the lacerated Scalp on both sides between his Ears and Brows. I could not see any advantage he could have by my Dressing. ~o have cut away the lacerated parts here had been to expose the Brain to the Air. But I helpt him to clear his throat, where was remaining the Root of his Tongue. He seemed to approve of my Endeavours, and implored my Help by the Signs he made with bis Hands. I askt him if he would drink, making a sign by the holding up a Finger. He presently did the like, and immediately after held up both his Hands, expressing his Thirst. A Souldier fetcht some Milk, and brought a little wooden Dish to pour some of it down his Throat;




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H. A. L. HoweZl 253

but part 6f it running on both sides, he reacht out his Hands to take the Dish. They gave it him full of Milk. He held the Root of his Tongue down with the one Hand, and with the other poured it down his Tbroat (carrying his Head backward) and so got down

. more than a quart. After that I bound his Wounds up. The dead were removed from thence to their Graves, and fresh Straw was fetcht for him to lie upon, with an old Blanket to cover him. It was in the Summer. There we left that deplorable creature to lodge; and while we continued there, which was about 6 or 7 days, he was drest by some of the Chirurgeons with a Fomentation made of Vulnerary Plants, with a little Brandy-wine in it, and with Stupes of Tow dipt in our common Digestive."

The Royalists had to retreat from Truro and the Prince of Wales sought refuge in the fort of Pendennis Castle, at the entrance into Falmouth harbour. At this time Wiseman appears to have been on duty with the Prince's guards, under the iPlmediate command of Lord Hopton, who took over the chief command of the Royalist Troops after the Prince's departure to Scilly. Wiseman escaped after Lord Hopton's defeat and rejoined the Prince at Scilly. It appears that Richard Pile, one of the King's SerjeantSurgeons, and Dr. Frarzer, one of the King's physicians, were also there.

In April 1646, the Prince escaped to Jersey. Wiseman accompanied him. At Jersey Serjeant-Surgeon Pile left the Prince, and, apparently, Wiseman (who was a favourite of Lord Hopton's, and was perhaps recommended by him) became surgeon to the Prince. He appears to have continued in attendance on the Prince when he went to J?aris and afterwards to The Hague.. While here the Prince became King on the death of his father. He then went to Breda and to St. Germains. In 1649, he and Frazer were with the King on his second visit to Jersey; and went from that place to Breda. Here preparartions were made for the expedition to Scotland.

In June, 1650, Charles II landed in Scotland. Wiseman's writings are full of references to this time. He was present at the fighting at Stirling, the taking of Callendar House, the fight at Musselburgh, and at Dunbar. He was with the Court at Perth, and marched with the King's army from Scotland into England. At the battle of Worcester, which followed, Charles n. was defeated, and Wiseman with many others was taken prisoner. The King, after many vicissitudes, managed to escape into Sussex, and, from thence to the Continent. Frazer, the King's physician, also




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254 Richard Wiseman, SerJeant-Surgeon to Oharles If.

escaped capture. Wiseman was marched with other prisoners to Chester. So ended Wiseman's career as an army surgeon.

He appears to have remained at Chester until the end of the year 1651. He was, however, allowed to practice his surgical skill upon the wounded. He describes an amputation of the arm, after a gunshot wound at the elbow, which he performed at this time. At last he obtained a pass to go to London, and arrived there in February, 1652.

Soon after his arrival in London, Wiseman obtained the freedom of the Company,o£ Barber-Surgeons. The date of his admission was March 23, 1651-2. He now, for a time, assisted "that most. excellent Chirurgeon, the deceased Mr. Ed. Molins, in dressing his patients." Wiseman's position was a .peculiar one: He was still a prisoner but was allowed his liberty under special baj} for his appearance if he were required. Wiseman was anxious to be delivered of his bail in order that he might rejoin the King, but, being unsuccessful, he took a house and established himself in practice" in the Old Bayley at the signe of the King's Head." He was soon doing very well at his profession, but this happy state of things only continued for two years.

About a fortnight after the Christmas of 1653 Wiseman was consulted by a Royalist, Mr. James Read, concerning a sore leg, and continued in attendance on him until the leg was nearly well. Read was suddenly arrested and cast into the Tower. After a few days Read sent a warder named Steere to Wiseman asking him to continue his attendances as the leg had become worse. It was only after repeated requests from Read, and with the assurance that the permission of the Lieutenant of the Tower had been obtained that Wiseman agreed to visit his patient again. Read attempted to escape and suspicion fell on Wiseman, who was supposed to have supplied the prisoner with aqua fortis to be used in the attempt. Wiseman and his servant were called to the Tower and interrogated by the Lieutenant, who, apparently satisfied by his examination, allowed Wiseman to return home.

In March, Steere came to Wiseman and said he had promised to assist Read to escape, and asked Wiseman's help. The warder, it afterwards turned out, was acting as a decoy with the cognizance of Colonel Barkstead (one of the Regicides), the Lieutenant of the Tower. Messages were conveyed from Read to Wiseman, and Wiseman was pressed to reply. He sent Read £5 and a note which Wiseman afterwards stated was worded thus: "Sir, those paines you complaine of will easily discusse, and so will that in your head,




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H. A. L. Howell 255

without the taking a course of phisicke." The messages were copied by Colonel Barkstead and communicated to Secretary 'l'hurloe. The above note was interpreted to mean that Read's escape was assured, and that he need not fear that he would lose his head. When we consider that Wise man had been so closely associated with the Royalist cause and that, as he himself says in a petition to Thurloe, his practice was chiefly amongst the Royalists in London, it is not surprising that the events just described led to Wiseman's arrest.

He was imprisoned in the Tower until Cromwell's decision regarding him was known, when he was taken to Lambeth House, at that time used as a prison, but formerly the residence of Archbishop Laud, and now known as Lambeth Palace. After a. month's imprisonment, Wiseman forwarded a petition to Secretary Thurloe praying for release, offering to give security that he would be ready to answer any crime that could legally be proved against him, and promising that he would "do nothing to the publique prejudice." 1

Wiseman tells us that during the time he was" imprisoned by the Fanaticks in Lambeth House," he was allowed to attend a. consultation on one of the prisoners there, and to continue treating the case.

At last Wiseman, it is supposed, at the intercession of some of his friends, obtained his release. He resumed his practice in London and remained there for at least two years. Longmore thinks that his practice, which was chiefly amongst the Royalists, gradually fell off, and, at last, in 1657 (or in the following year), he followed the example of many Royalist officers, and, leaving England, took service as a surgeon in the King of Spain's navy.

We know from .his writings that he served for three years in the Spanish Navy. Part of this period was probably spent in the West Indies, for when describing how, although persons may be exposed to the same source of infection yet those of sound constitution frequently escape, he illustrates this fact by saying, "of which I have seen the frequent experiment during the three years I served in the King of Spain's Navy, where our mariners as soon as their pockets were full of money would be getting ashore to the Negroes and others that usually attended their landing."

In his chapter, "Of Wounds of the Face," Wiseman relates

1 "This petition and ot:p.er papers relating to the affair can be found by the curious in Birch's" Thurloe Papers."




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256 Richard Wiseman, Berjeant-Burgeon to Oharles 11.

a case which occurred during his service in the Spanish Navy. He says, "Whilst I served among the Dunkirkers, where Snick and Snee was, as it were, a fashion, I had much of. this kind of work" -namely, the cure of face-wounds due to fights with knives. Wiseman's ship was at anchor in the Groine when three ships for the King of Spain, manned by Hollanders, came in from Hamburg. The boatswain of one of these vessels was drinking with some Spanish sailors on shore, and becoming drunk, began to talk about religion, and upbraided one of the Dunkirkers for wearing a cross. After declaring, with curses, "he would not wear a Cross, no, the Devill take him, one of our men beat him down and fell with him; then kneeling upon his breast, and holding his Head down, he drew out a knife sticking in his Sash and cut him from the Ear down towards the Mouth, then from under the Eye from that Cheek-bone to the nether jaw. 'Now,' said he, you shall wear a Cross that the Devill do not carry you away.'" Wiseman was called in to attend bis co-religionist, and describes very fully how he stitched up the wounds, the dressings he applied, and the care taken in feeding the patient to prevent interference with the progress of healing. In a short time "the Patient was well pleased with his cure, though there remained SOme marks of the Cross."

On the termination of his three years' service in the Spanish Navy Wiseman returned to London and resumed the practice of his profession at his house near the Old Bailey. He was living there when Charles II and his Court returned to London at the Restoration. Soon after this date Wiseman moved westward to 3, house in Covent Garden (then known as Convent Garden), where he spent the remainder of his life. Ten days after the return of Charles II to London, on June 8, 1660, Wiseman was appointed· «Surgeon in Ordinary for the Person." This would appear to have been a special mark of the King's favour, for Wiseman was supernumerary to the regular establishment for over a year.

On the death of the King's Surgeon, Michael Andrews, Wiseman, on August 5, 1661, was formally granted by Royal Warrant the vacant appointment. In June he had been granted a pension of £150 a year (State Papers), and the "Warrant included the usual salary of a King's Burgeon of £40 a year.

Three other Surgeons claimed at this time the appointment of Serjeant-Surgeon. Richard Pile had been Serjeant-Surgeon to Charles I, and claimed the appointment as his by right. John Knight and Humphrey Painter had also held appointments as Surgeons to the Household of Charles I. In 1661, all three were




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H. A. L. Howell 257

officially appointed as Principal Surgeons and Serjeant-Surgeons, and later, Richard Pile was appointed" First Principal Surgeon." Pile had been (with Wiseman) with the King in the West of England, and in Jersey. Knight, as Surgeon-General, directed the medical affairs of the Army, and perhaps of the Navy also.

On the death of Serjeant-Surgeon Humphrey Painter, ·Wiseman was appointed Principal Surgeon and Serjeant-Surgeon. He was sworn into office on March 25, 167~, but the appointment dated from February 15. In February, 1674-5, his pension of £150 a year was renewed" for life."

For some years Wiseman had been suffering from occasional attacks of hffimorrhage from the lungs, and he became a confirmed invalid for several years before his death.

He refers in his writings to several attacks of hffimoptysis. On one occasion, after trepanning a patient for depressed frac

ture of the skull, he tells: "Going out of his close room into the fresh air, I presently burst out with a violent .coughing of blood." And again, he wii tes that, "In the year of the great Sicknesse, whilst I was in the North-country, a Gentleman sent his servant to me who had some half a year before luxated his right shoulder. He had been with a Bone-setter, who made him believe he had set it; but, .upon sight of it, I concluded it luxated, and felt the head of the Humerus lying in his arm-pit. 'I being then laine of my fractured leg: and indisposed with coughing blood, advised tbe man to return to bis Bone-setter and tell him what I had said." After, consulting several bone-setters tbe man returned to Wiseman with the bone still dislocated. With the aid of "the Pulley and Coulstaffe" Wiseman reduced the dislocation, and the man recovered the full use of his arm.

It is to his gradual witbdrawal from the active practice of his profession on account of ill-health that we owe the production of his writings. In his" Epistle to the Reader," dated May 24, 1676, he states that his treatises were written "in those hours which a frequently repeated sickness bath for this 20 years last past deny'd me the use of my private occasions," and goes on to say that his state of health had given him" opportunity of reading and thinking as well as practising; both which are necessary to the accomplishment not only of an author, but indeed of a chirurgeon."

In the summer of 1676vViseman went to Bath in tbe bope of improving his health. Whilst there, on August 20, ]676, the end came, appal'ently rather suddenly, for he died without signing his. will; although he verbally declared it to be his last will in the




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258 Richard Wiseman, Set':jeant-Surgeon to Oha1,les II.

presence of witnesses, and it was afterwards proved. In this will he desired that he might be buried near his first wife in the Church of St. Paul, Covent Garden, and in that church, on the ninth day after his death, his remains were interred. This church was afterwards burnt down and replaced by the present edifice.

Wiseman was twice married. Of his first wife we only know that she was named Dorothy, that she had a niece Mary Doughty, and died in February, 1674. Wiseman married again about a year after the death of his first wife. His second wife was Mary Mauleveror, sister of Sir Thomas Mauleveror, and grand-daughter of the first baronet, who was one of the members of the High Court of Justice which sentenced Charles I to death, and whose signature was attached to Charles's death warrant. At the time of his death Wiseman's wife was .pregnant, and she subsequently gave birth to a son. This son was named after his father but died in childhood in 1678, and was buried with his father. Mrs. Wiseman afterwards married Mr. Thomas Harrison, of Gray's Inn. She died in 1680, and was buried in St. Paul's Church.

Wiseman left no direct descendants. He had two sisters, one of whom was named Hastings, and he refers in his writings and his will to his kinsman J acques Wiseman, who had been apprenticed to him on May 5, 1663. J acques Wiseman became freeman of the Company of Barber-Surgeons in 167'2. He was the son of Samuel vViseman, a London apothecary, and is by some thought to have been a nephew of Richard Wiseman, but this has not been proved. From an entry in the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1666, he appears to have been appointed Chirurgeon to the Earl of Carlisle's Regiment. He certainly obtained a commission as Chirurgeon to Lord Carlisle's Hegiment on January '2'2, 1673, and was, four days later, transferred to the Duke of Albemarle's Regiment. He afterwards settled down in practice in Long Acre, and left an only child, a daughter, and £30,000, at his death in 1710.

Richard Wiseman, towards the end of his life, was very comfortably off. His fees as Principal Surgeon and Serjeant-Surgeon, and his annuity of £150 a year came to £'256 13s. 4d. a year. This would be equivalent to over £1,026 a year at the present time. In addition, when lodgings were not available at Court, he received lodging allowance at the rate of £1 a week. In his writings he only once mentions a fee, alld this was a remarkable one. The patient had been suffering from syphilis for seven years, had been treated by many surgeons, and, at last, came to Wiseman at the




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time when he was a prisoner in Lambeth House. The patient was put under a course of mercury, and at the end of a month was practically cured. He was not, however, completely satisfied, and retired into the country for two years. On his return to London "he acknowledged to me his cure," writes Wiseman, ,. by settling £30 a year upon me during his life, and paid me £60 for the two years passed." This annuity was equal to £120 a year in modern money. Wiseman':;; will shows that he held a mortgage on the estate of his brother-in-law, had lent £2,000 to different persons, and had the "several estates and leases " "of the Rectory of Stroubby and Barnby and alsoe the Fee Farm of Feckenham Parke in Worstershire, And also my two tenements in the Strand in the County of Middx." He owed £2,000 to Mr. Edmond Wiseman, Mercer, who does not appear to have been a relation.

Two portraits of Wiseman are known to exist. One is a miniature in water-colours by the eminent painter Samuel Cooper; the other is an oil painting supposed to have been painted by Sir Balthazar Girbier. The miniature, which is in the possession of the Duke of Rutland, is dated 1660, and a reproduction of it in photogravure forms the frontispiece of Sir Thomas Longmore's "Richard Wiseman, a Biographical Study." The portrait, in oils; is in the London Royal College of Surgeons Ca reproduction forms the frontispiece of this article).l If painted by Girbier, it was executed before 1667, the year in which the artist died, and probably, therefore, shows Wiseman when 40 years of age or a little over, and not "fifty years old or upwards," as described by Sir Thomas Longmore. It is the portrait of a thoughtful, scholarly-looking man, with honest eyes, a good strong chin and a resolute mouth.

Wiseman was a well-educated man. He was a good Latin scholar, for his works contain many quotations from classical writers. He refers to the writings of Hippocrates, Galen, Celsus, Fallopius, Scultetus, Botallus and others. Latin was the language of the learned in his day, and we find country practitioners when con- . suIting him frequently writing the notes of their cases in that language. He wrote good English and had no difficulty in conveying his ideas in simple, direct language. Sir Thomas Longmore points out that, at a time when erratic spelling was the rule, Wiseman's spelling very closely agrees with that of the present day.

Richard Wiseman's first book appeared in 1672. The title-page runs "A Treatise of Wounds, by Richard Wiseman, one of His

1 Reproduced by permission of the President of .the Royal College of Surgeons.




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260 Richard Wiseman, Serjeant-S,urgeon to Oharles If.

Majestie's Sergeant Chirurgeons. London: Printed by R. Norton for Richard Royston, Bookseller to His Most Sacred Majesty: 1672." This is an 8vo volume of 277 pages. It is a very rarre book, for only two copies are known to exist: one in the British Museum Library, the other in the Library of the Royal Army Medical College at Millbank. The British Museum copy has been disfigured by notes written on its pages. The copy belonging to the Royal Army Medical Corps is in beautiful condition, well-bound and decorated. It was presented by Sir James McGrigor, Bart., Director-General, A.M.D. This book contains a "Letter to the Reader," is divided into two parts and has an Appendix. The first part contains the treatise on wounds, the second part that on gunshot wounds, and the Appendix deals with burns, gangrene and sphacelus, fistulro and fractures. Wiseman says he has other treatises, "which ly rough cast," on tumours, lues venerea, and king's evil.

At the end of the volume appear the words "Imprimatur, April 4, 1672, Guliel. Wigan." This signifies that the book was published with the license of the Bishop of London, WillialIl Wigan being Chaplain to the Bishop at that date. By a statute ,of Charles H, books of divinity, physic, philosophy, science or art could not be published in London without tho authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury or Bishop of London.

It may be noted that this book was written specially for naval surgeons. In this, his first work, he was afraid to describe many of his cases for fear of offending his patients or other surgeons, "so many, both surgeons and patients, therein concerned, being alive." The treatises, apparently, were originally written as lectures to be delivered at the Hall of the Barber-Surgeons' Company. That on "Fractures" was so delivered just before the Great Fire of London. The fire burnt down part of the Hall and probably interrupted the course of lectures. .

In 1676 appeared what was real1y a second edition of his book of 1672, but as it bore a different title it has been considered the first edition of "Several Chirurgical Treatises. By Richard Wiseman, Sergeant-Chirurgeon." Thus the edition of 1686, a well-preserved copy of which can be seen in the Library of the Bristol Medical Association, bears the words" the Second Edition." Later editions which appeared in 1696, 1705, 1719, and 1734 expand the title to read" Sergeant-Chirurgeon to King Charles H." All these are unaltered copies of the 1676 edition, which was the last one Wiseman prepared for the press. In addition, there is a spurious second edition, dated 1692, the origin of which was due




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H. A~ L.Howell 261

to the sharp practice of a printer named Samuel Clement, who obtained copies-probably remainders-of the 1676 and' HiS6 editions and, removing the title-pages, inserted new title-pages printed by himself. . .

The 1676 and later editions do not bear the imprimatur of the Bishop of London. They were censore.d by the Corporation of Barber-Surgeons in accordance with the rules of that body, but, in addition, they obtained the approval of the College of Physicians. This approval was signed by the President, Censors and Registrars of the College and appears in Latin at the beginning of ea,ch edition: Translated, it runs, "We judge this will be of great advantage to physicians equally with surgeons if these chirurgical treati!?Els be committed to the press."

The Library of the Royal Army Medical College is rich in editions of Wiseman. It possesses those dated 1672, 1676, 1696, 1719, and 1734. . The 1676 edition, from which the quotations in this memoir have been taken, was dedicated to Charles n. It is the 1672 book expanded, corrected, and re-arranged. It contains many more illustrative cases. The "Letter to the Reader" of the 1672 edition is replaced by an "Epistle to the Reader," which ends wit!). the words" thy friend and servant, Richard Wiseman;"'and bears date May 24, 1676. The later editions also contain this epistle.

The treatises are eight in number, and deal respectively with tumours, ulcers, diseases of the anus, king's evil, wounds, gunshot wounds, fractures and luxations, and lues venerea.

Wiseman's writings are delightful to read; he describes his cases with great frankness, never boasts, tell, us of his failures· as well as of his successes, is always loyal to the physicians and surgeons who consulted him, and acknowledges their ability. Each chapter ends with notes of cases of the diseases or injuries described in the chapter, and his patients are introduced to the reader with a few descriptive touches which enable one to visualize the person. Thus:" An officer of the King's Regiment of Foot, of a sanguine and healthful constitution; marching at the head of his Company ih a hot Summer's day,' heated his Bloud, and was, seized with a pain in one of his teeth of the lower right jaw"; "A Person of Honour, of a full Body abounding -with sharp Humours, was seized with an Herpes on his right leg"; "A Widow woman, aged 56 years, of a gross Body"; "A .man come out of Ireland diseased. with. a .. large Tumour in the lower Belly)); and soon. Over 600 " observations "of cases of surgical disease or injuries are described by him.




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262 RlchaTd Wiseman, Serjeant-Surgeon to Ohal'Zes II.

We may note that Wiseman described himself as an "Artist in Chirurgy." As an operator he shows himself to have been bold but cautious. His views on amputation may be gathered from a few extracts from his writings. He writes: "In heat of Fight, whether it be at Sea or Land, the Chirurgeon ought to consider at the first Dressing what possibility there is of preserving the wounded member; and accordingly, if there be no hopes of saving it, to make his Amputation at that instant while the Patient is free of Fever." "Among the Cruisers in private Fregats from Dunkirk it was complained that their Chirurgeons were too active in amputating those fractured members, as in truth these are such silly Brothers who will brag of the many they have dismembered, and think that way to lie themselves into credit. But they that truly understand Amputation and their Trade will know how villainous a thing it is to glory in such a work." He again remarks: "Consider well the Member, and if you have no probable hope of Sanation, cut it off quickly, while the Souldier is heated and in mettle. But if there be hopes of Cure, proceed rationally to a right and methodicall Healing of such Wounds; it being more for your Credit to save one Member than to cut off many." He liked the patient to be seated in a chair during the amputation.

He did laparotomy for strangUlated hernia and for the radical cure of hernia, placing" The patient flat on the table with his Heels raised up: then one of the Assistants shall press with his hand on the bottom of the belly."

Wiseman was the great practical surgeon -of his day, and a comparison of his teaching with that of writers before his time, such as Clowes and W oodal, shows the very great progress surgery had made; but, at the same time, we find him clinging to many of the superstitions of the past, to many of the old methods of treatment, perhaps not because he believed in them himself but because he knew they were accepted by his contemporary brother surgeons, and as he puts it himself when referring to the use of tents to keep

_ open abdominal wounds, as was then the custom, which he condemned, " Yet if it be not done, the chirurgeon is usually condemned by common vogue; therefore it is that, against their own judgment, they keep them tented, often to the ruin of their patients." This fear of losing the support of his brother surgeons prevented him from doing laparotomy in cases of abdominal wounds and suturing the wounded intestine, although he thought it the correct procedure. He expresses his belief, as a good Royalist was bound to do, in the efficacy of the King's touch for the cure of King's evil, and we




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H. A. L. Howell 263

find him recommending as an application to restrain the growth of cancerous tumours, "the Oyl of Frogs made by baking them with butter in their mouths." But on occasion we find him ignoring common practice and public opinion when he felt that it was in his patients' interest to do so. Thus he found no difficulty in finding simple substitutes for the complex materials in common use in surgery at that time when the needs of his patient demanded it.

We must agree with Sir Thomas Longmore when he states that the publication of Wiseman's treatises" showed that a cultivated and scientific education and special study were as essential for a good surgeon as for a good physician," and that" there is the strongest ground for believing that the remarkable advance which took place in England in surgery in the century after Wiseman's death was largely traceable to the fact of his writings having been so widely diffused, as they were towards the close of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries."

In the midst of the turmoil and strife of a revolutionary period, a time of callousness· to human suffering, Wiseman devoted his life to his humane and noble profession; in a drunken age he was a water drinker, and at a time when licentiousness was rampant we have every reason to believe he led a moral life. When we ponder over his life's work and its influence on the profession he loved so dearly, we cannot but be proud of the fact that he was an English Army Surgeon.

[Chief Authorities: "Richard Wiseman, A Biographical Study," by SurgeonGeneral Sir T. Longmore, C.B., Q.H.S., F.R.C.S. "Contributions towards a Memoir of Richard \Viseman," by J ames Dixon, F.,R.C.S., in the Medical Times and Gazette, October 19, 1872. "Richard Wiseman and the Surgery of the Commonwealth," in "Disciples of lEsculapius," by Sir B. W. Richardson. Lives in Aikin's "General Biographical Dictionary," and in the" Dictionary of National Biography."] ,




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~nurnai (tommunicattona. · richard wiseman, of thundersley hall, essex. certain it is that sir...

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