JOHN

See also:

• JOHN HILTON (1804–1878)
• HILTON, WILLIAM (1786-1839)

HILTON (1804–1878)  , British surgeon, was born at Castle Hedingham, in Essex, in 1804 . He entered Guy's Hospital in 1824 . He was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in 1828, assistant-surgeon in 1845, surgeon 1849 . In 1867 he was president of the Royal College of Surgeons, of which he became member in 1827 and fellow in 1843, and he also delivered the Hunterian oration in 1867 . As Arris and Gale professor (1859–1862) he delivered a course of lectures on " Rest and Pain," which have become classics . He was also surgeon-extraordinary to Queen Victoria . Hilton was the greatest anatomist of his time, and was nick named " Anatomical John, It was he who, with Joseph Towne the artist, enriched Guy's Hospital with its unique collection of models . In his grasp of the structure and functions of the brain and spinal cord he was far in advance of his contemporaries . As an operator he was more cautious than brilliant . This was doubtless due partly to his living in the pre-anaesthetics period, and partly to his own consummate anatomical knowledge, as is indicated by the method for opening deep abscesses which is known by his name . But he could be bold when necessary; he was the first to reduce a case of obturator hernia by abdominal section, and one of the first to practise lumbar colostomy . He died at Clapham on the 14th of September 1878 .