A manuscript of Benjamin Collins Brodie's surgical lectures, 1822; with some notes on the history of stricture and stone.

THERE has come into my possession a manuscript copy of the surgical lectures given by Benjamin Collins Brodie in the season 1822-23, one hundred and thirty-six years ago. They were given at his theatre in Great Windmill Street; this was Hunter's School of Anatomy, now the site of the dressing rooms of the Lyric Theatre. The notes were taken by James Taylor of Todmorden Hall. They are beautifully written, quite legible and form the first volume of a complete textbook, having apparently been taken down verbatim. There may be other copies in existence, and there is at least one two-volume set of notes in the library of the Royal College of Surgeons taken by William Hutchinson, a pupil of Everard Home, in 1810, and presented by Charles Hawkins. Comparison of the two sets shows evidence of the correction and revision which Brodie constantly carried out in his lectures and they form the basis of the surgical part of the edition of Brodie's works collected by the same Charles Hawkins and published in 1865, three years after his death. Brodie entered the Great Windmill Street School as a pupil in 1803 at the age of 20, having attended Abernethy's lectures on anatomy two years earlier. In 1808 he became lecturer in surgery, a post which he held for twenty years.