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Surgery
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Post Mortem Examinations and Case Books

  • 406 PM
  • Collection
  • 1840-1946

The post mortem records contain manuscript case notes, with medical notes both pre and post mortem. These include details on patients’ admission to the hospital, treatments and medication administered to patients and the medical history of patients; the medical histories were copied into the volumes from hospital registers, which are no longer extant. The post mortem cases include detailed pathological findings made during the detailed examination of the body after death. From the 1880s onwards the case books contain original anatomical drawings and photographs.

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The following information is recorded for each case. The information is transcribed from the case notes and/or the relevant index and, where relevant, additionally standardised using MeSH (Medical Subject Headings)

• Name of the patient. If a name is not entered in the volume, it is noted in the catalogue as ‘[No name stated]’

• Gender of the patient (female / male / unknown)

• Age of the patient. Usually in numbers, following the original, with the following exceptions: 4/12 = 4 months, 4/52 = 4 weeks, 4/365 = 4 days. If no age is entered, it is noted in the catalogue as ‘[No age stated]’

• Occupation of the patient. Where no occupation is entered, it is noted in the catalogue as ‘[No occupation stated]’. Children are often designated according to their father’s or mother’s occupation and women by their husband’s occupation (e.g. ‘F / Horsekeeper’, ‘M. Charwoman’, ‘Hd Grocer’); these have been rendered in the catalogue as ‘[Child of] Horsekeeper’, ‘[Wife of] Grocer’

• Date of admission and date of death

• The names of the doctors treating or examining the patient. ‘Admitted under the care of’ denotes the senior doctor in charge of the case (usually entered at the top of the page and in the index); ‘Post mortem performed by’ denotes the doctor responsible for the post mortem examination (usually signed at the bottom of the page) and ‘Medical examination performed by’ denotes the doctor responsible for the medical examination prior to death (usually signed at the bottom of the page). The earliest records usually contain only one name, and some of the later ones may contain multiple names in each category. An authority record (name access point) with basic biographical details has been created for each doctor mentioned in the records; these can be used to explore all the cases related to a particular individual

• Disease(s) or cause of death of the patient. Transcribed from the medical case and/or the index and standardised, e.g. ‘Disease (transcribed): Phthisis. Fractured base. Disease (standardised): Tuberculosis (lungs). Fracture (skull)’

• Medical and post mortem notes. Brief summary description or transcription of the case notes relating to previous medical history (not a full transcription of the case notes)

• Note on whether the case includes illustrations or photographs; these can also be browsed via genre access points

• Note on whether the death was caused by trauma, accident or suicide

• Subject access points, using standardised terms from MeSH, with disease type (e.g. respiratory tract diseases, cardiovascular diseases) and anatomy type (e.g. cardiovascular system, musculoskeletal system), which can be used for browsing all relevant cases

Note on transcriptions and abbreviations

Names have been silently expanded, e.g. Jas = James, Wm = William

Some common abbreviations and acronyms

AMCH = Atkinson Morley Convalescent Hospital, Wimbledon
BID = Brought in dead
COA = Condition on admission
F = Father
H or Hd = Husband
HP = House physician
HS = House surgeon
IP = In-patient
L = Left
M = Mother
MR or Med reg or Med r = Medical register or Medical registrar
MS = Museum specimen
OP = Out-patient
OPD = Out-patient department
OR = Obstetric register
PMH = Previous medical history
PH = Previous history
Pt or Pat = Patient
PM = Post mortem
R = Right
RF = Rheumatic fever
Ry = Railway
SR or Surg reg = Surgical register or Surgical registrar
TB = Tuberculosis
VD = Venereal disease

St George's Hospital, London

Granville, A.B.: Graphic Illustrations of Abortion and the Diseases of Menstruation

Inscription on title page: ‘Presented to the Medical Library, St George’s Hospital by Sir Benjamin Brodie Bart’

Full title: ‘Graphic Illustrations of Abortion and The Diseases of Menstruation. Consisting of Twelve plates from drawings engraved on stone, and coloured by Mr J. Perry, and two copper-plates from the Philosophical Transactions, coloured by the same artist. The whole representing forty-five specimens of aborted ova and adventitious productions of the uterus, with preliminary observations, explanations of the figures, and remarks, anatomical and physiological’

Gray, Henry: Anatomy Descriptive and Surgical

Inscription on title page: ‘W. Percy Reynolds July 1872’

Full title: Anatomy Descriptive and Surgical by Henry Gray, F.R.S. Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and lecturer on Anatomy at St George’s Hospital Medical School. The drawings by H.V. Carter, M.D., late demonstrator of anatomy at St George’s Hospital; with additional drawings in the second and later editions by Dr Westmacott. The dissections jointly by the author and Dr Carter. Fifth edition, with an introduction on general anatomy and development, by T. Holmes, M.A. Cantab. Surgeon to St George’s Hospital: Mem.Correp. De La Soc. De Chir. De Paris’

Fifth edition

Guattani: De Externis Aneurysmatibus

Full title: ‘De externis aneurysmatibus manu chirurgica methodice pertractandis cum nonnullis circa aneurysmata interna ac tribus aliis rarioribus chirurgicis observationibus atque oesophagotomiae operatione e gallico sermone in latinum versa. Omnia cum tablis archetypis opus Caroli Guattani’

Haller, Albrecht von: Disputationes Chirurgicae, Vols. 1-5

Inscription on title page: ‘Presented to the Library of St George’s Hospital by G.G. Babington Esq. Decbr 2nd 1843’

Full title: Disputationes Chirurgicae Selectae, collegit, edidit, praefatus est Albertus Hallerus’

Heister, Laurence: Medical, Chirurgical, and Anatomical Cases and Observations

Inscription on title page: ‘Presented to the St George’s Hospital Library by G.G. Babington Esq. Decr 2nd 1843’

Full title: ‘Medical, Chirurgical, and Anatomical Cases and Observations … With Copper-plates, illustrating the Descriptions in the respective Cases. Translated from the German Original by George Wirgman’

Heister, Lorenz: A General System of Surgery

Full title: ‘A General System of Surgery, in three parts. Containing the Doctrine and Management I. Of Wounds, Fractures, Luxations, Tumors, and Ulcers, of all Kinds. II. Of the several Operations performed on all Parts of the Body. III. Of the several Bandages applied in all Operations and Disorders. The Whole illustrated with Forty Copper-Plates, exhibiting all the Operations, Instruments, Bandages, and Improvements according to the Modern and most approved Practice. To which is prefixed, an Introduction, Concerning the Nature, Origin, Progress, and Improvements of Surgery, with such other Preliminaries as are necessary to be known by the Younger Surgeons. Being a Work of Thirty Years Experience’

Seventh edition

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