Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Hutchinson, Jonathan
HUTCHINSON, Sir JONATHAN (1828–1913), surgeon, the second son of Jonathan Hutchinson, a middleman in the flax trade, by his wife, Elizabeth Massey, was born at Selby, Yorkshire, 23 July 1828. He belongs to a group of distinguished medical contemporaries of quaker origin, which includes Thomas Hodgkin, T. B. Peacock, Lord Lister, Wilson Fox, and D. H. Tuke. His ancestors had farmed for generations the same small estate near Boston in Lincolnshire, and amongst them were some of the early followers of George Fox. His youth was passed without demur in a strict quaker circle, but by middle life he had freed himself from the outward forms of quakerism, though its serious influence upon him was obvious throughout his career. A scientific training, the close study of nature, and the influence of Darwin left him at last far from orthodox, but—to quote the words which he directed to be engraved upon his tombstone—‘a man of hope and forward-looking mind’.
After being apprenticed to Dr. Caleb Williams, of York, in 1845, he spent four years at the small York school of medicine (1846–1850), and completed his training by attending lectures at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. Disliking at first the thought of private practice, he began his life in London by writing for medical journals, coaching, and making the elaborate clinical records for which he afterwards became famous. In 1856 he married Jane Pynsent West, and about this time began private practice at 14 Finsbury Square. He held minor hospital appointments until in 1859 he obtained a post as assistant surgeon at the London Hospital. Here, as well as at the Metropolitan Free Hospital and the special hospitals on the surgical staff of which he served (the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, the Blackfriars Hospital for Skin Diseases, and the Royal Lock Hospital), the greater part of his life's work was carried out. In 1862 he obtained the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, and in that year he was appointed lecturer on surgery at the London Hospital; in 1863, when he became full surgeon, he took on the additional subject of medical ophthalmology. In 1874, by which time he had made a great reputation, he moved to more fashionable quarters, 15 Cavendish Square, next door to his famous medical colleague, Sir Andrew Clark [q.v.]. He left the active staff of the London Hospital in 1883 with the title of emeritus professor of surgery, and the Hutchinson triennial prize essay was then instituted to commemorate his services. He served on the council of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1879 to 1895, and was president in 1889. He was Hunterian professor from 1879 to 1883 and in 1891 delivered the Hunterian oration. In 1882 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He was also president in turn of most of the London medical societies, and he received many honours from abroad and in his own country. He served on the royal commissions on small-pox and fever cases in London hospitals (1881) and on vaccination (1890–1896), and was knighted in 1908. He died at Haslemere, Surrey, 26 June 1913. He had six sons, four of whom survived him, and four daughters.
Hutchinson was a specialist of great repute in at least three subjects. He was a leading authority on ophthalmology, dermatology, to some extent on neurology, but above all on syphilis; so that he has been described as the greatest general practitioner in Europe. He was extraordinarily diligent, a laborious and accurate observer, and an inveterate note-taker. His vast collection of pathological drawings was probably unequalled. He had a retentive memory, a logical mind, a love of discussion, and an enthusiasm for diffusing knowledge. His teaching was made impressive by ingenious arguments, apt illustrations, vivid metaphors, and quaint expressions, and was driven home by the simplicity and solemnity with which it was delivered. He thus naturally attracted a large following of students, young and old, who considered him almost infallible, and in doubtful cases were always anxious to hear ‘what Jonathan would say’.
Amongst other outcomes of these labours were the publication of Illustrations of Clinical Surgery (two volumes, folio, 1878–1884), A smaller Atlas of Illustrations of Clinical Surgery (1895), a series of Archives of Surgery (1889–1900) following, at a distance, the German model, and the formation of a large museum. This collection of specimens and drawings was first housed at 1 Park Crescent, London, and was moved in 1889 to the ‘Polyclinic’, a post-graduate medical college in Chenies Street, in which Sir William Broadbent [q.v.] and Dr. Fletcher Little were also greatly interested. Here courses of lectures and demonstrations were given by Hutchinson and others, and gratis consultations on impecunious patients were held in public. These became very popular and were largely attended by general practitioners and others.
Hutchinson was a voluminous writer. His works on syphilis are standard authorities. He promulgated the now generally accepted view that syphilis is a specific fever like small-pox or measles. He will be specially remembered for his observations on the eyes and teeth of sufferers from congenital syphilis; ‘Hutchinson's teeth’ and ‘Hutchinson's eyes’ are terms that have passed into medical language. He also wrote on the pedigree of disease, on leprosy, and on countless other subjects in the medical journals. He was the moving spirit of the New Sydenham Society, which was chiefly occupied in producing at a moderate cost translations of continental monographs on medical subjects.
He had many interests outside his profession. He was an omnivorous reader, and by inheritance and inclination a country man. In his early days he had a small house at Reigate, and when he became prosperous he bought a property at Haslemere to which he added from time to time till it reached 300 acres. Over this he would walk with his gun, and part of it he farmed. Here, with such companions as his lifelong friend and colleague, the learned Hughlings Jackson [q.v.], he studied natural history and geology with the same energy which he devoted to surgery in London. He also established in Haslemere about 1890 at his own expense an ‘educational museum’ of specimens scientifically arranged for methodical instruction and study; this, he hoped, would be a model for similar museums elsewhere. It is extensively used at the present time. Here and at a hall near his own house he gave Saturday and Sunday lectures and demonstrations to his neighbours and guests, on scientific, literary, and religious subjects. He gave a museum arranged on the same lines to his native town, Selby.
Hutchinson's fame does not rest on his achievements in general surgery. He can hardly be placed amongst the pioneers; and he was too early in the field to become identified with the advances in pathology and bacteriology which laid the foundations and raised the structure of modern surgery. He has been described as an indifferent though a successful operator. His special gift was that of observation, and the accumulation and collation of clinical facts. It was impossible to doubt their accuracy, but his deductions from them were not always equally convincing. Thus, having come to the conclusion as early as 1855 that the chief cause of leprosy was the eating of decomposed fish, he did not change his opinion even after the discovery of the lepra bacillus. He held that leprosy was only slightly contagious, and strongly condemned segregation. To corroborate his theory he journeyed to Norway in 1869, South Africa in 1901, and India and Ceylon as late as 1903. In his book Leprosy and Fish-eating (1906) he adds much to our knowledge and exposes many fallacies, but his views did not meet with wide acceptance, though he upheld them stoutly to the last. The book is likely to be of interest to those who hold the simple creed that, given the discovery of a specific micro-organism, there is no need to seek further for the causa causans of a disease.
[Sir Jonathan Hutchinson, by G. N. (Sir George Newman) in the Friends' Quarterly Examiner, 1913; obituary notices in the Annual Monitor (Gloucester), 1913, p. 113; Lancet, 28 June 1913; British Medical Journal, 28 June 1913; Ophthalmic Review, vol. xxxii, 1913, p. 225 (by E. Nettleship); private information; personal knowledge.]