Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 349

JOHN HALL (1529?-1566) An historiall expostulation: Against the beastlye abusers, both of chyrurgerie and physyke, in oure tyme: with a goodlye doctrine and instruction, necessarye to be marked and folowed, of all true chirurgiens. Printer for the Percy Society, by T. Richards 1844 xxvii, 60 pp., front. (port.). 19.6 cm.

Hall was an Elizabethan country physician and surgeon who practiced at a small village in Kent. It was Hall who prepared the first anatomy in English to be published in England. His work predated that of Vicary (see No. 203), his more better-known countryman. Hall's anatomy was compiled largely from the works of Guy de Chauliac, Lanfranco of Milan, and William of Saliceto and contained little new or original knowledge. In 1565 Hall translated Lanfranco of Milan's Chirurgia parva into English and it was published at London by Thomas Marshe. Included with it were his anatomy and the present work. Hall was a staunch opponent of quacks and he speaks out boldly in castigating them and their practices. Throughout his writings he takes every opportunity to condemn them and in this work Hall gives many accounts of the itinerant impostors who visited Maidstone, where he resided. He closes the work with a poem of fifty-six verses in which he advises young students on how to properly practice their profession. The work has here been edited by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew (1791-1865), a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.

See Related Record(s): 203

Cited references: Cushing H47; Waller 3982; Wellcome III, p. 196

Gift of William B. Bean, M.D