Jonathan Wathen

Jonathan Wathen (c.1728-1807) was an English surgeon, who specialized in diseases of the eye and practiced in London during the Georgian era.

He was teacher and mentor to the ophthalmologist James Ware, and Sir Jonathan Wathen Waller, the oculist to George III.

[6] Jonathan presented a paper in 1755 to the Royal Society on a method of restoring hearing by using a catheter to clear a blocked eustachian tube (i.e., the canal that runs from the nose to the ear).

[13] Although Ware ultimately became the better known of the two, and was even admitted as a Fellow to the Royal Society, he acknowledged in print his debt to his mentor and former partner Jonathan Wathen.

[15] The elder Jonathan continued to practice, having achieved renown equal to that of his deceased brother Samuel (d. 1787), and died on 17 January 1808 at East Acton, London (Middlesex) in his 80th year.