In some of the lower Quadrumana, in the Lemuridae and Carnivora, as well as in many marsupials, there is a passage near the lower end of the humerus, called the supra-condyloid foramen, through which the great nerve of the fore limb and often the great artery pass. Now in the humerus of man, there is generally a trace of this passage, which is sometimes fairly well developed, being formed by a depending hook-like process of bone, completed by a band of ligament. Dr. Struthers, who has closely attended to the subject, has now shewn that this peculiarity is sometimes inherited, as it has occurred in a father, and in no less than four out of his seven children. When present, the great nerve invariably passes through it; and this clearly indicates that it is the homologue and rudiment of the supra-condyloid foramen of the lower animals. Prof. Turner estimates, as he informs me, that it occurs in about one per cent of recent skeletons. But if the occasional development of this structure in man is, as seems probable, due to reversion, it is a return to a very ancient state of things, because in the higher Quadrumana it is absent. [20] [note 2]
Aberdeen, a coastal city, gave Struthers the opportunity to observe the whales which were from time to time washed up on Scotland's coast. In 1870 he observed, dissected and described a blue whale (which he called a "Great Fin-Whale") from Peterhead. He brought the entire skeleton of a sei whale back to the anatomy department at Aberdeen, where for a century it was suspended overhead in the hall. He vigorously collected examples of a wide range of species to form a museum of zoology, with the intention of illustrating Darwin's theories. As an energetic and forceful personality with a strong enthusiasm for zoology, he alarmed his colleagues at the University of Aberdeen by constantly asking for money and space to acquire and house his collection. [8] [21]
Struthers became known to the general public for his dissection of the "Tay Whale", one of his largest specimens. [8]
At the end of December 1883, a humpback whale appeared in the Firth of Tay off Dundee, attracting much local interest. It was harpooned, but after an all-night struggle escaped. A week later it was found dead, and was towed on to the beach at Stonehaven, near Aberdeen. Struthers quickly visited the carcass, measuring it as 40 feet long with a tail 11 feet 4 inches wide. Struthers was not able to start dissecting it at once, as a local entrepreneur, John Woods, bought the whale and took it to his yard in Dundee, where on the first Sunday, 12,000 people paid to see it. [8]
Struthers was not allowed to dissect the famous specimen until it was too badly decomposed for further public exhibition. [note 3] He was well used to working on stinking carcasses: his dissecting room was reputed to stink "like the deck of a Greenland whaler". [22] The dissection was disturbed by John Woods, who admitted the public, for a fee, to watch Struthers and his assistants at work, with a military band playing in the background. Progress on the dissection was impeded by snow showers. Struthers was able to remove much of the skeleton before Woods had the flesh embalmed; the carcass was then stuffed and sewn up to be taken on a profitable tour as far as Edinburgh and London. After months of waiting, on 7 August 1884, Struthers was able to remove the skull and the rest of the skeleton. Over the next decade, Struthers wrote seven anatomy articles on the whale, with a complete monograph on it in 1889. [8]
Struthers' siblings included James Struthers MD (1821–1891), a doctor at Leith hospital for 42 years, and his youngest brother Alexander Struthers MB who died at Scutari Hospital in Istanbul during the Crimean War. [23]
Struthers married Christina Margaret Alexander (born 15 January 1833) on 5 August 1857. Christina was the sister of John Alexander, chief clerk to Bow Street Police Court. She too came from a Scottish medical family; her parents were Dr James Alexander (1795–1863) and Margaret Finlay (1797–1865), both of old Dunfermline families; James practised as a surgeon just across the English border in the small town of Wooler, Northumberland. [4] : 77 On James' death as a "country practitioner", the city-dweller Struthers wrote [24]
The great majority of the profession are and must be country practitioners; the hardest work of the profession is done by them; in the winter nights, when the world is asleep, they have many a long and weary drive; they are far from libraries, from hospitals and museums, and from societies; and thus in their comparative isolation want that stimulus and guidance which tend to keep the city practitioner up to the mark. [24]
Struthers was father-in-law of nitroglycerine chemist David Orme Masson, who married his daughter Mary. He was grandfather of another explosives chemist, Sir James Irvine Orme Masson, and father-in-law of educator Simon Somerville Laurie, who married his daughter Lucy. [25] [26]
On retiring from the University of Aberdeen, Struthers returned to Edinburgh. He lived at 15 George Square. [27]
He was buried in the north-east section of the central roundel of Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh, in 1899; his wife Christina joined him there in 1907. The grave faces over a path to that of his brother, James Struthers.
All three of their sons, Alexander, James and John also worked in the medical profession; John William Struthers followed his uncle James by working at Leith Hospital, and followed his father by working at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and by becoming president of the Royal College of Surgeons. [4] : 79
In 1852 Struthers was elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh and served as president in 1894. [28] He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Glasgow in 1885 for his work in medical education. [4] : 78 [2] In 1892 he was given honorary membership of the Royal Medical Society; he also became president of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh. [4] : 78 He was appointed to the General Medical Council in 1883 and remained a member until 1891. [4] : 78 He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1894. [29] In 1895 he was made president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; he held the position for two years. [4] : 78 In 1898, he was knighted (as Sir John Struthers) by Queen Victoria for his service to medicine. [4] : 78 [30] [31]
Glasgow University's Struthers Medal is named in his honour. [32]
Struthers authored over 70 manuscripts and books, including the following.
The history of anatomy in the 19th century saw anatomists largely finalise and systematise the descriptive human anatomy of the previous century. The discipline also progressed to establish growing sources of knowledge in histology and developmental biology, not only of humans but also of animals.
The Burke and Hare murders were a series of sixteen murders committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures.
Sir Charles Bell was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist, physiologist, neurologist, artist, and philosophical theologian. He is noted for discovering the difference between sensory nerves and motor nerves in the spinal cord. He is also noted for describing Bell's palsy.
Robert Knox was a Scottish anatomist and ethnologist best known for his involvement in the Burke and Hare murders. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Knox eventually partnered with anatomist and former teacher John Barclay and became a lecturer on anatomy in the city, where he introduced the theory of transcendental anatomy. However, Knox's incautious methods of obtaining cadavers for dissection before the passage of the Anatomy Act 1832 and disagreements with professional colleagues ruined his career in Scotland. Following these developments, he moved to London, though this did not revive his career.
Alexander Monro III of Craiglockhart, FRSE FRCPE FSA (Scot) MWS, was a Scottish anatomist and medical educator at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. According to his detractors, Monro was an uninspired anatomist who did not compare with his brilliant father or grandfather as a teacher or scientist. His students included Charles Darwin who asserted that Monro "made his lectures on human anatomy as dull as he was himself."
The Anatomy Act 1832 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that gave free licence to doctors, teachers of anatomy and bona fide medical students to dissect donated bodies. It was enacted in response to public revulsion at the illegal trade in corpses.
Alexander Monro was a Scottish surgeon and anatomist. His father, the surgeon John Monro, had been a prime mover in the foundation of the Edinburgh Medical School and had arranged Alexander's education in the hope that his son might become the first Professor of Anatomy in the new university medical school.
James Bell Pettigrew was a Scottish anatomist and noted naturalist, aviation pioneer and museum curator. He was a distinguished naturalist in Britain, and Professor of Anatomy at St Andrews University from 1875 until his death.
Alexander Monro of Craiglockhart and Cockburn was a Scottish anatomist, physician and medical educator. He is typically known as Alexander Monro secundus to distinguish him as the second of three generations of physicians of the same name. His students included the naval physician and abolitionist Thomas Trotter. Monro was from the distinguished Monro of Auchenbowie family. His major achievements included, describing the lymphatic system, providing the most detailed elucidation of the musculo-skeletal system to date and introducing clinical medicine into the curriculum. He is known for the Monro–Kellie doctrine on intracranial pressure, a hypothesis developed by Monro and his former pupil George Kellie, who worked as a surgeon in the port of Leith.
The Royal Medical Society (RMS) is a society run by students at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, Scotland. It claims to be the oldest medical society in the United Kingdom although this claim is also made by the earlier London-based Society of Apothecaries (1617). The current president of the 287th session is fifth-year medical student Miss Nanna Sivamanoharan. The RMS is a professional society engaged in the advancement of medical knowledge and provision of assistance to medical students and professionals.
Filippo Civinini was an Italian anatomist from Pistoia. He is remembered for contributions made in the field of osteology, in particular the cranium.
The Tay Whale, known locally as the Monster, was a humpback whale that swam into the Firth of Tay of eastern Scotland in 1883. It was harpooned in a hunt, but escaped, and was found floating dead off Stonehaven a week later. It was towed into Dundee by a showman, John Woods, and exhibited on a train tour of Scotland and England.
Struthers' ligament is a feature of human anatomy consisting of a band of connective tissue at the medial aspect of the distal humerus. It courses from the supracondylar process of the humerus to the medial epicondyle of the humerus. It is not a constant ligament, and can be acquired or congenital. The structure was highlighted by John Struthers, who discussed the feature's evolutionary significance with Charles Darwin. Struthers originally reported that the ligament usually arose at a position 3.2 to 6.4 cm from the medial condyle, being 1.2 to 1.9 cm in length, and nearer to the anterior than the medial border of the humerus.
John Barclay was a Scottish comparative anatomist, extramural teacher in anatomy, and director of the Highland Society of Scotland.
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Resurrectionists were body snatchers who were commonly employed by anatomists in the United Kingdom during the 18th and 19th centuries to exhume the bodies of the recently dead. Between 1506 and 1752 only a very few cadavers were available each year for anatomical research. The supply was increased when, in an attempt to intensify the deterrent effect of the death penalty, Parliament passed the Murder Act 1752. By allowing judges to substitute the public display of executed criminals with dissection, the new law significantly increased the number of bodies anatomists could legally access. This proved insufficient to meet the needs of the hospitals and teaching centres that opened during the 18th century. Corpses and their component parts became a commodity, but although the practice of disinterment was hated by the general public, bodies were not legally anyone's property. The resurrectionists therefore operated in a legal grey area.
Prof William Pirrie FRSE LLD was a 19th-century Scottish surgeon and medical author. He served as President of the North of Scotland Medical Association.
John William Struthers FRCSEd was a Scottish surgeon. During World War I he served as a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was awarded the Serbian Order of St Sava. During his career in Edinburgh he became an early user of local anaesthetic techniques in general surgery and wrote a highly regarded booklet on the topic. He was elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) from 1941 to 1943.
Extramural medical education in Edinburgh began over 200 years before the university medical faculty was founded in 1726 and extramural teaching continued thereafter for a further 200 years. Extramural is academic education which is conducted outside a university. In the early 16th century it was under the auspices of the Incorporation of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) and continued after the Faculty of Medicine was established by the University of Edinburgh in 1726. Throughout the late 18th and 19th centuries the demand for extramural medical teaching increased as Edinburgh's reputation as a centre for medical education grew. Instruction was carried out by individual teachers, by groups of teachers and, by the end of the 19th century, by private medical schools in the city. Together these comprised the Edinburgh Extramural School of Medicine. From 1896 many of the schools were incorporated into the Medical School of the Royal Colleges of Edinburgh under the aegis of the RCSEd and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) and based at Surgeons' Hall. Extramural undergraduate medical education in Edinburgh stopped in 1948 with the closure of the Royal Colleges' Medical School following the Goodenough Report which recommended that all undergraduate medical education in the UK should be carried out by universities.
It is part of a collection of comparative anatomy put together by John Struthers (1823–1899), Scottish zoologist and anatomist. At one time, the museum held a whole array of animals, from a tiger skeleton and a dolphin skull, to the pulmonary vein of a whale and the skin of a porcupine fish. Much of what we do have will be featured in the new displays that open in September.
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