Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collignon, Charles

1320541Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 11 — Collignon, Charles1887George Thomas Bettany

COLLIGNON, CHARLES, M.D. (1725–1785), anatomist, was of French extraction, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.B. in 1749 and M.D. in 1754. He practised in Cambridge as a physician, and was in 1769 elected professor of anatomy, which office he held till his death on 1 Oct. 1785.

Collignon married a lady of Dutch parentage at Colchester, by whom he had an only daughter, Catherine [q. v.] Cole, who knew him well, says of him: 'He is an ingenious, honest man, and if they had picked the three kingdoms for a proper person to represent an anatomical professor, they could not have pitched upon a more proper one, for he is a perfect skeleton himself, absolutely a walking shadow, nothing but skin and bones; indeed. I never saw so meagre a figure, such as one can conceive a figure to be after the flesh and substance is all dried away and wasted, and nothing left to cover the bones but a shrivelled dry leather; such is the figure of our present professor of anatomy, 19 June 1770' (Cole, MS. Collection, British Museum, xxxiii. 264). He was a fellow of the Royal Society.

Collignon's works, which are mostly in the nature of moral reflections based on a little anatomy and medicine, include: 1. 'Compendium Anatomico-Medicum,' 1756. 2. 'Tyroncinium Anatomicum,' 1763. 3. 'Enquiry into the Structure of the Human Body relative to its supposed Influence on the Morals of Mankind,' 1764; third edition, 1771. 4. 'Medicina Politica; or Reflections on the Art of Physic as inseparably connected with the Prosperity of a State,' 1765. 5. 'Moral and Medical Dialogues,' 1769. These were collected with some' other minor writings at a quarto volume of 'Miscellaneous Works,' published by subscription in 1786.

[European Mag. viii. 320; Cole, loc. cit.; Collignon's Works.]