![[POTT, Percivall (1714-1788)]. ALLEN, Charles. "Abstracts from Dr. Pott's Lectures. 1780 & 1781." Autograph manuscript, extracts from lectures delivered by Percival Pott at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, [London], 1780-81. 285 pages, 4to, contemporary half roan, rebacked, inscribed "Charles Allen 1810" on pastedown.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/NYR/2005_NYR_01534_0148_000(102119).jpg?w=1)
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[POTT, Percivall (1714-1788)]. ALLEN, Charles. "Abstracts from Dr. Pott's Lectures. 1780 & 1781." Autograph manuscript, extracts from lectures delivered by Percival Pott at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, [London], 1780-81. 285 pages, 4to, contemporary half roan, rebacked, inscribed "Charles Allen 1810" on pastedown.
Pott's lectures at St. Bart's, delivered once his reputation was firmly established and here recorded by Charles Allen, cover such subjects as "Fractures," "Gun-Shot Wounds," "Wounds of Tendons & Sinews," and "Diseases of the Bladder." Allen opens the notes by writing that "In the course of these Lectures Mr. Pott intended nothing more than to Deliver his opinion concerning the Practice of every part of Surgery and then he desired every pupil to judge for himself, whether or no, it is consistent with reason, and sound doctrine..." Allen's notes are closely written, filling the quarto sheets (mostly on rectos only) digesting the salient aspects of Pott's lectures.
At the age of 22, Pott was admitted to the Company of Barber Surgeons and moved into practice in Fenchurch Street where he lived with his mother and stepsister. In 1739 he applied for the post of assistant surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital but was rejected. When his former master was made surgeon at that hospital in 1745, Pott became assistant surgeon and was promoted to full surgeon in 1749 where he remained for the next 38 years. He was very successful and his patients included Samuel Johnson, David Garrick and Thomas Gainsborough.
The most significant event in Pott's life was in 1756 when he was riding to see a patient in Southwark. He fell from his horse and sustained a compound fracture of his tibia. The surgeon who attended him advised amputation and Pott agreed. However, before the operation was performed, Nourse turned up at his home and suggested reduction of the fracture. The fracture eventually healed by primary intention. During his convalescence Pott wrote A treatise on Ruptures which established his reputation. In it he refuted many of the old theories concerning the causes of hernias and methods of treatment He was one of the first doctors to recognize and industrial disease when he described the association between work as a chimney sweep and scrotal carcinoma.
Pott's lectures at St. Bart's, delivered once his reputation was firmly established and here recorded by Charles Allen, cover such subjects as "Fractures," "Gun-Shot Wounds," "Wounds of Tendons & Sinews," and "Diseases of the Bladder." Allen opens the notes by writing that "In the course of these Lectures Mr. Pott intended nothing more than to Deliver his opinion concerning the Practice of every part of Surgery and then he desired every pupil to judge for himself, whether or no, it is consistent with reason, and sound doctrine..." Allen's notes are closely written, filling the quarto sheets (mostly on rectos only) digesting the salient aspects of Pott's lectures.
At the age of 22, Pott was admitted to the Company of Barber Surgeons and moved into practice in Fenchurch Street where he lived with his mother and stepsister. In 1739 he applied for the post of assistant surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital but was rejected. When his former master was made surgeon at that hospital in 1745, Pott became assistant surgeon and was promoted to full surgeon in 1749 where he remained for the next 38 years. He was very successful and his patients included Samuel Johnson, David Garrick and Thomas Gainsborough.
The most significant event in Pott's life was in 1756 when he was riding to see a patient in Southwark. He fell from his horse and sustained a compound fracture of his tibia. The surgeon who attended him advised amputation and Pott agreed. However, before the operation was performed, Nourse turned up at his home and suggested reduction of the fracture. The fracture eventually healed by primary intention. During his convalescence Pott wrote A treatise on Ruptures which established his reputation. In it he refuted many of the old theories concerning the causes of hernias and methods of treatment He was one of the first doctors to recognize and industrial disease when he described the association between work as a chimney sweep and scrotal carcinoma.