The Casebooks of William Hey F. R. S. (1736-1819): An Analysis of a Provincial Surgical and Midwifery Practice

Using the twelve Medical and Surgical Casebooks and ten Midwifery Casebooks as central source material evidence, this thesis seeks to provide an analysis of the Georgian provincial medical practice of William Hey F. R. S. (1736-1819). Hey was both typical of many medical practitioners emerging from British medical training in the middle of the eighteenth century, yet untypical in that he was one of the select few who held an appointment over half a century as a senior surgeon in one of the century's twenty-seven newly founded hospitals and infirmaries. I begin by charting the rise of the special skills of human anatomy, surgery and midwifery in the first part of the century, and consider how the previous lack of detailed evidence about the actual day-to-day working lives of Georgian practitioners has restricted recent scholarship. In order to fully evaluate Hey's successful career I then provide detail of his early life, schooldays, apothecary apprenticeship and clinical London training. This is followed by a review of his whole career from his initial relations with the existing medical practitioners, to his domination of the medical stage in Leeds over six decades. Built into this review are some other aspects of his life that nevertheless had an impact upon the progress of his career, not least the significance of his permanent handicaps. The vast quantity of case histories within the Casebooks can only be selectively treated. My selection provides evidence of the medical variety, surgical innovation and some of the finer and more unusual features of his skilful midwifery technique. Elements of his patient- practitioner relationships, the development of his clinical approach, and the indistinct area between his private and charitable patients become evident as the discussion of his work proceeds. The thesis concludes with an overview of Hey's life and the ways in which his Casebooks provide vital new insight for the better understanding of Georgian provincial medical, surgical and midwifery practice.