Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1207

CHRISTOPHER ROBERT PEMBERTON (1765-1822) A practical treatise on various diseases of the abdominal viscera. Printed by W. Bulmer for G. and W. Nicol 1806 xv, 197 pp., [2] plates. 23.4 cm.

Pemberton studied medicine at Cambridge and proceeded to become a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and later the Royal Society. He was physician extraordinary to the king and was elected physician to London's St. George's Hospital in 1800. He had been afflicted with tic douloureux for many years and was forced to resign from St. George's in 1800. Although he had submitted to a division of several branches of the fifth cranial nerve by Cooper (see No. 1224 ff.), he could not find relief for the condition and retired to Kent where he died of apoplexy. This was Pemberton's only published work and was one of the earliest English books to discuss palsies of tradesmen. Among the subjects covered are the peritoneum, liver, gall bladder, pancreas, spleen, kidneys, stomach, and intestines. His most original observations are that cancer of the bowel may be present for a long time before serious symptoms are revealed and that overuse of muscles may lead to a condition indistinguishable from palsy.

See Related Record(s): 1224

Gift of John Martin, M.D.