W I L L I A M C H E S E L D E N
and his anatomical atlas,
the Osteographia

facsimile of portrait engraving

^ Engraved portrait of William Cheselden (1688–1752), after a portrait painted by Jonathan Richardson (1665–1745). “During surgery Cheselden covered his head with a loose-fitting silk turban, a precursor of today’s surgeon’s cap.” (Sanders, 2282)

As a surgeon, Cheselden was particularly noted for his operation for the stone, for which he invented a new method. His textbook, Anatomy of the Humane Body (first published 1713), was a classic used by medical students for over a century, with 16 English and American editions issued by 1806.

[ 1 ]

William Cheselden was Great Britain’s foremost surgeon/scientist in the first half of the 18th century. Cheselden directly challenged the Company of Barber-Surgeons’ exclusive right to control dissection in London by being the first to conduct a regular series of anatomy lectures and demonstrations outside of the Company’s Hall. He incorporated his lecture syllabus into a handbook of anatomy, The Anatomy of the Humane Body, which was used by students for nearly 100 years. Cheselden also wrote the text and drew the illustrations for a majestic atlas of comparative osteology, the Osteographia, or the Anatomy of the Bones. Cheselden used his superior knowledge of anatomy to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with perineal lithotomy, one of the few operations possible in his era. Sagacious and pragmatic, Cheselden recognized that the enlightened practice of surgery beginning to take root in 18th-century London could flourish only under an autonomous body of surgeons. Cheselden used his personal funds and political skills to urge Parliament to pass legislation for the dissolution of the combined Company of Barber-Surgeons and the establishment of separate and distinct Surgeons’ and Barbers’ Companies. After disjoinder of the two groups on May 2, 1745, Cheselden served as one of the Wardens of the new Company of Surgeons — a predecessor of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. In 1746, Cheselden, who helped design the first Surgeons’ Hall, served as the Company’s Master.

SOURCE: Mark A. Sanders, “Historical Perspective: William Cheselden: Anatomist, Surgeon, and Medical Illustrator.” Spine 24.21 (1 Nov. 1999): 2282.

[ 2 ]

William Cheselden (1688–1752) was the outstanding surgeon of the first half of the eighteenth century. He was a popular figure, with a wide circle of distinguished friends. He enjoyed life. He was a keen follower of prize-fighting. He was a racy and a witty talker. But above all he was an amazingly skilful surgeon. He was one of the earliest surgeons to dissect publicly at his own house the bodies of criminals, and in so doing to earn the displeasure of the Barber Surgeons’ Company, for his lectures coincided with theirs and were more popular. He became remarkably adept at the operation of lateral lithotomy, frequently performing it in one minute — his record being fifty-four seconds — a feat which was of great importance in days when there was no anaesthesia. His mortality of 17 per cent. was not unduly high.

SOURCE: William Brockbank and D. Ll. Griffiths, “The Art of Osteography.” The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery 30B.4 (Nov. 1948): 714.

[ 3 ]

William Cheselden

wrote several books, the most interesting of which was his Osteographia published in 1733. It was dedicated to Queen Caroline and included full and accurate descriptions of human osteology with a fine series of fifty-six engravings, mostly of individual bones. These were probably drawn with the camera obscura and the title page shows Cheselden making a drawing by this method. Not only does this book reveal the normal anatomy of bones; it shows something of bone disease, and is one of the finest of English works with anatomic illustrations. It also includes an engaging series of illustrations of the skeletons of animals, birds and fishes.

SOURCE: William Brockbank and D. Ll. Griffiths, “The Art of Osteography.” The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery 30B.4 (Nov. 1948): 722.

[ 4 ]

The early development of orthopaedic surgery and of the science of human anatomy ran hand-in-hand. Anatomists were surgeons. The surgery of the body-cavities was impossible; so that one may claim fairly that anatomists founded their science as part of the development of limb surgery and the surgery of the body wall, though, naturally, their attention was also focused at an early stage on the anatomy of the viscera.

“ In days when dissections were rare, illustrations of anatomical detail were peculiarly important. Skeletons could be acquired only with much difficulty and with no little risk. Vesalius acquired one skeleton by removing a body from the gallows. The work of the artist was an important medium in the spread of anatomical knowledge. These early illustrations are of interest to-day. Many are of great artistic value, and it is interesting to note how many artists saw the skeleton as a living structure, to be depicted in attitudes of action. Certainly they did not regard the skeleton as a series of ‘dry bones’ as have many of their successors.

SOURCE: William Brockbank and D. Ll. Griffiths, “The Art of Osteography.” The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery 30B.4 (Nov. 1948): 714.

facsimile of early-18th-century engraving

^ Drawing by William Cheselden, giving a side view of adult male skeleton (idealized male figure drawn in the same proportion as the Belvedere Apollo). Plate 36 from William Cheselden’s Osteographia, or the Anatomy of the Bones (London, 1733).

Cheselden used a camera obscura to execute many of his images. His apprentices, John Belchier and Samuel Sharp, would align the skeleton (hanging it upside down from a tripod positioned in front of the camera obscura) and take documentary notes while Cheselden drew. For Osteographia, Cheselden depicted all the bones of the human body separately in their actual life size, with large plates measuring “twenty one inches long and fifteen broad,” “and again reduced in order to shew them united to one another.”

References

Brockbank, William, and D. Ll. Griffiths. “The Art of Osteography.” The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery 30B.4 (Nov. 1948): 714–22.

Cheselden, William. The anatomy of the humane body. Illustrated with twenty-three copper-plates of the most considerable parts; all done after the life. By W. Cheselden, surgeon; Fellow of the Royal Society. London: Printed for N. Cliff, and D. Jackson, at the Bible and Three Crowns next Mercers Chapple in Cheapside, and W. Innys, at the Feathers in St. Paul’s Church-yard, 1713.

Cheselden’s noted work, Anatomy of the Humane Body (first published in 1713), became an important medical textbook, passing through 16 English and American editions by 1806.

Cheselden, William. Osteographia, or the anatomy of the bones. In fifty-six plates. By William Cheselden. Every bone in the human body is here delineated as large as the life, and again reduced to lesser scales, in order to shew them united to one another. Likewise the gradual increase of the bones, from the first appearance of ossification in the fœtus to that of an adult, their internal texture, as also the ligaments of the joints, and a great variety of diseased bones are here exhibited. This work was executed in a camera obscura contrived on purpose by the author, which renders it more exact and complete than any thing of the kind whatever; one view of such prints shewing more than the fullest and best description can possibly do. London, [1733].

Sanders, Mark A. “Historical Perspective: William Cheselden: Anatomist, Surgeon, and Medical Illustrator.” Spine 24.21 (1 Nov. 1999): 2282–9.

[ Great Britain’s foremost surgeon/scientist in the first half of the 18th century ]