1. William Macewen was a pioneer in modern brain surgery, considered the father of neurosurgery and contributed to the development of bone graft surgery, the surgical treatment of hernia and of pneumonectomy.
16 Facts About William Macewen
1. 2.
William Macewen studied Medicine at the University of Glasgow, receiving a medical degree in 1872.
3.
William Macewen was greatly influenced by Joseph, Lord Lister, who revolutionised surgery by developing antisepsis, by the use of phenol, thus decreasing drastically the enormous mortality of surgical patients due to infections.
4.
In 1892 William Macewen became Regius Professor of Surgery at the University of Glasgow and transferred his surgical activities to the Western Infirmary.
5.
William Macewen was knighted in the 1902 Coronation Honours for services to medicine, receiving the accolade from King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October that year.
6.
In 1916 William Macewen helped to found the Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers in Erskine, near Glasgow, which was urgently needed to treat the thousands of military who had lost their limbs in the First World War.
7.
William Macewen was its first chief surgeon and with the help of engineers and workers at the nearby Yarrow Shipbuilders he designed the Erskine artificial limb.
8.
William Macewen trained a team of pattern-makers to manufacture them for the hospital.
9.
William Macewen recruited the first matron for Erskine, Agnes Carnochan Douglas, who he had worked with in the Western Infirmary in Glasgow.
10.
William Macewen lived at Garrochty on the Isle of Bute until his death and was buried nearby in the churchyard of St Blane's Church at Kingarth.
11.
William Macewen later used this many times to successfully operate on brain abscesses and hematomas and on the spine.
12.
The X-ray had not yet been discovered; William Macewen's diagnosis was based on clinical findings superbly illustrated by his three clinical stages of brain abscess development.
13.
William Macewen developed surgical treatments for mastoid disease and pyogenic cysts of the temporal bone and has identified an anatomical structure in this bone, the foveola suprameatica, which was named MacEwen's triangle in his honour.
14.
William Macewen's name was immortalised in Medicine in two other instances: the Macewen's operation for inguinal hernia and the Macewen's sign for hydrocephalus and brain abscess.
15.
William Macewen was noted for his early and creative use of photographs for documenting patients' cases and for teaching surgery and medicine.
16.
The archives of Sir William Macewen are maintained by the Archives of the University of Glasgow and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.