John Birkett (surgeon)
An early advocate of histology, he introduced the teaching thereof in 1845, and subsequently promoted the use of histopathology in cancer diagnosis.
[2] Birkett's most memorable contribution to his field was his treatise on diseases on the mammary gland, the very first comprehensive treatment of the subject, for which he was awarded the Jacksonian Prize by The Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1848.
[3][4] Birkett's work fell into obscurity for 150 years, and both it and he himself (in the context of breast disease at least) were largely forgotten by medical historians.
One reviewer, writing in the Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal in 1850, said that "[t]he diseases of the breast have been so fully described by Sir Astley Cooper, that we took up Mr. Birkett's essay without much hope of further information, but on perusal we found much additional matter".
Birkett divided up the subject simply and logically, into:[4] He gave a clinical description of each condition, and related it to both anatomy and physiology.
[4] In plates vii and viii, for examples, one can find seven well-executed microscopic illustrations of two cases of lobular carcinomae.
[3] The book also contains descriptions of a typical mammary fistula; treatment of the same by seton stitch; breast cysts; and mastalgia and galactorrhea.
[4] Birkett was tutored on a wide range of subjects in several British public schools, it being recorded that one of his schoolmasters was a Frenchman, one a Greek scholar, and one a mathematician and astronomer.
In September 1831, at age 16, he was made the apprentice of Bransby Blake Cooper, who was a surgeon at Guy's Hospital at the time.
[4][8] Birkett was admitted a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons on 1837-10-06, and appointed a Demonstrator of Anatomy at the same time, a post that he held until 1847.
without examination, and by 1845/1846 he was giving demonstrations in microscopic anatomy on weekday evenings, the first instruction in histology given at the medical school.
