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John Dawson (surgeon)
Encyclopedia
John Dawson was both a mathematician
and surgeon
. He was born at Raygill in Garsdale
, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire
, where "Dawson's Rock" celebrates the site of his early thinking about conic sections. After learning surgery from Henry Bracken
of Lancaster, he worked as a surgeon in Sedbergh for a year, then went to study medicine at Edinburgh
, walking 150 miles there with his savings stitched into his coat. Despite a very frugal lifestyle, he was unable to complete his degree, and had to return to Garsdale until he earned enough as a surgeon and as a private tutor in Mathematics at Sedbergh School
to enable him to complete his MD from London in 1765.
Dawson published The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity Briefly Invalidated in 1781, arguing against Joseph Priestley
's doctrine of Philosophical Necessity, but his main skill was in Mathematics. He was a private tutor to many undergraduates at the University of Cambridge
where his pupils included twelve Senior Wranglers between 1781 and 1807. Although he published little original work, he was skilled in correcting errors in the work of others. He studied the orbit of the moon and the dynamics of objects in central force fields, correcting serious errors in the calculations of the distance between the earth and the sun, and confirming an error in Newton's precession calculations.
He is notable as a mentor of Adam Sedgwick
, James Inman
, George Butler
and many other public figures of the nineteenth century.
, Dawson worked until he was about twenty as a shepherd on his father's freehold, developing an interest in mathematics in his spare time with the aid of books that he bought with the profits from stocking knitting or borrowed from his elder brother, who had become an excise officer. Despite being entirely self-taught he worked up his own system of conic sections and began to establish himself as a teacher of mathematics, often spending two or three months at a time in the houses of his pupils.
, and Adam Sedgwick
's father, Richard Sedgwick, read with him before going up to Cambridge. But the profession on which Dawson embarked was that of a surgeon. In this he was influenced by Henry Bracken
, the eminent Lancaster surgeon, with whom he worked as an assistant and pupil. For a year, back in Sedbergh
, he practised as a surgeon and then, with his accumulated savings of £100 stitched in his clothing, walked to Edinburgh
to study medicine and mathematics. Despite his frugality he could not stay long enough to take a degree and he returned to Sedbergh to resume his practice and save in preparation for another austere period of study, this time in London. His stay in the capital was brief, but he gained experience in the London hospitals, attended surgical and medical lectures, and made a contact, with Edward Waring
, the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, that was to be important for his future work as a mathematician. Returning to Sedbergh with a diploma, he made his practice the best in the north-western dales and soon enjoyed security, even prosperity.
, who read with him in 1804 before going up to Cambridge and subsequently during vacations, recalled, Dawson would seat his pupils, often a dozen or more, at tables about the house and move constantly from one to another, correcting and advising. Dawson's method achieved remarkable results. Between 1781 and 1794, at least seven, possibly eight, of the fourteen senior wranglers at Cambridge had been taught by him, as had four others between 1797 and 1807. Among these were the future chancery barrister John Bell
, the Arabist John Palmer
, the lawyer and anti-slavery campaigner Thomas Harrison, James Inman
, who went on to become professor of mathematics at the Royal Naval College
, Portsmouth
, and George Butler
, later headmaster of Harrow
and dean of Peterborough
, whose vivid account of the journey of almost five days between London and Sedbergh and his introduction to Dawson was published in The Sedberghian for December 1881. Pupils who went on to Cambridge and did not achieve the rank of senior wrangler included, in addition to Richard and Adam Sedgwick and Haygarth, the lord chief justice Sir Nicholas Conyngham Tindal
, the mathematician Miles Bland, who was at Sedbergh School, and several bishops. Among those whose medical interests took them to Edinburgh rather than Cambridge were Robert Willan
, Thomas Garnett, and George Birkbeck
.
Dawson maintained his active engagement in mathematics into his seventies. But from 1812, with his memory and physical strength failing, he took no further pupils. An anonymous correspondent writing from Trinity College, Cambridge, in the European Magazine urged the university to recognize his status as the first mathematician of England by awarding him an honorary degree. But his original contributions to mathematics were not numerous, and the only formal honour they brought him was election as a corresponding member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
.
His earliest and most substantial publication was his Four Propositions, which appeared anonymously in 1769 in an edition that was largely destroyed by fire. In it Dawson identified errors in the calculation that had led Matthew Stewart, the professor of mathematics at Edinburgh, to overestimate the distance between the earth and the sun by more than a quarter. He pursued his argument vigorously when he was attacked by Samuel Horsley
in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society; his reply in the Gentleman's Magazine (40, 1770, pp. 452–3) made no concessions and reinforced the respect in which he was held by several Edinburgh mathematicians and natural philosophers, including John Playfair
, Lord Webb Seymour, and Henry Lord Brougham, all of whom visited him in Sedbergh. By comparison with Four Propositions his other mathematical publications were slight. The most important of them was a series of rather combative letters signed ‘Wadson’ and published in Charles Hutton's Miscellanea mathematica (1775), in which he criticized a paper by Charles Wildbore on the velocity of water emerging from vessels in motion. Less important but more acrimonious in the response that it engendered was an exchange in which Dawson took the side of Thomas Simpson
against the cantankerous William Emerson
by offering an independent analytical demonstration of the existence of an error in Newton's treatment of precession.
and then in Clitheroe
. Described by Adam Sedgwick as ‘a firm believer and a good sober practical Christian of the old school’, Dawson abhorred the doctrines of David Hume
and applauded James Beattie
's attack on Humean scepticism. In a similar spirit he wrote against Joseph Priestley
's The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity (1777), which he regarded as immoral in tendency and false. His 24-page pamphlet outlining his views on the damaging consequences and unsure foundations of an acceptance of determinism, The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity Briefly Invalidated (1781), elicited a dismissive, unsigned rejoinder in the Monthly Review (65, 1781, pp. 66–8), which he answered in an appendix to a second edition of the work in 1803. Although Dawson is said to have retained the respect of Priestley and his other adversaries, his contribution lacked the sophistication that the debate demanded at the highest level and it made little lasting mark.
The impact that Dawson had on those who knew him was heightened by a commanding physical presence well conveyed in the portraits that survive of him. The original of one of the portraits, painted by Joseph Allen
in 1809 and showing Dawson teaching a seated pupil, had already been lost by the mid-nineteenth century, but it survived in the form of a copy by the vicar of Sedbergh, the Revd D. M. Peacock, and an engraving by W. W. Barney. The other, a watercolour painted by William Westall
in 1817 of a sombre and very elderly Dawson, went to private hands. Striking though Dawson's appearance was, however, he was revered above all for his simplicity of manner and a cheerful, benevolent temperament that left him, in Adam Sedgwick's words, ‘without any stiffness or affectation of superiority’.
in Sedbergh was erected, in the form of a bust of him by Robert William Sievier
, with an inscription, dated August 1825, by his former pupil John Bell
.
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
. He was born at Raygill in Garsdale
Garsdale
Garsdale is a civil parish occupying a narrow populated valley in Cumbria, England. It is on the western slopes of the Pennines, between Baugh Fell to the north, and Rise Hill to the south. The main hamlet, called “The Street”, lies on the A684 road, east of Sedbergh, and west of Hawes...
, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county, County of York, West Riding , was based closely on the historic boundaries...
, where "Dawson's Rock" celebrates the site of his early thinking about conic sections. After learning surgery from Henry Bracken
Henry Bracken
Henry Bracken, M.D. , was a writer on farriery.Bracken was the son of Henry Bracken of Lancaster, and was baptised there 31 October 1697....
of Lancaster, he worked as a surgeon in Sedbergh for a year, then went to study medicine at Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, walking 150 miles there with his savings stitched into his coat. Despite a very frugal lifestyle, he was unable to complete his degree, and had to return to Garsdale until he earned enough as a surgeon and as a private tutor in Mathematics at Sedbergh School
Sedbergh School
Sedbergh School is a boarding school in Sedbergh, Cumbria, for boys and girls aged 13 to 18. Nestled in the Howgill Fells, it is known for sporting sides, such as its Rugby Union 1st XV.-Background:...
to enable him to complete his MD from London in 1765.
Dawson published The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity Briefly Invalidated in 1781, arguing against Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
's doctrine of Philosophical Necessity, but his main skill was in Mathematics. He was a private tutor to many undergraduates at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
where his pupils included twelve Senior Wranglers between 1781 and 1807. Although he published little original work, he was skilled in correcting errors in the work of others. He studied the orbit of the moon and the dynamics of objects in central force fields, correcting serious errors in the calculations of the distance between the earth and the sun, and confirming an error in Newton's precession calculations.
He is notable as a mentor of Adam Sedgwick
Adam Sedgwick
Adam Sedgwick was one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Devonian period of the geological timescale...
, James Inman
James Inman
James Inman was an English mathematician, professor of mathematics at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth.He was born at Tod Hole in Garsdale, the younger son of Richard Inman and Jane Hutchinson. He was educated at Sedbergh Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge, graduating as first...
, George Butler
George Butler (headmaster)
George Butler was an English schoolmaster and divine, headmaster of Harrow School from 1805 to 1829.Son of Weeden Butler , George Butler was educated at the Chelsea school where his father taught and proceeded to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he graduated senior wrangler in 1794...
and many other public figures of the nineteenth century.
Education
After a rudimentary education at the Revd Charles Udal's school in GarsdaleGarsdale
Garsdale is a civil parish occupying a narrow populated valley in Cumbria, England. It is on the western slopes of the Pennines, between Baugh Fell to the north, and Rise Hill to the south. The main hamlet, called “The Street”, lies on the A684 road, east of Sedbergh, and west of Hawes...
, Dawson worked until he was about twenty as a shepherd on his father's freehold, developing an interest in mathematics in his spare time with the aid of books that he bought with the profits from stocking knitting or borrowed from his elder brother, who had become an excise officer. Despite being entirely self-taught he worked up his own system of conic sections and began to establish himself as a teacher of mathematics, often spending two or three months at a time in the houses of his pupils.
Tutoring
What began as a purely local reputation spread quickly, from 1756, when three young men, including the future physician John HaygarthJohn Haygarth
John Haygarth was an important 18th-century British physician who discovered new ways to prevent the spread of fever among patients and reduce the mortality rate of smallpox....
, and Adam Sedgwick
Adam Sedgwick
Adam Sedgwick was one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Devonian period of the geological timescale...
's father, Richard Sedgwick, read with him before going up to Cambridge. But the profession on which Dawson embarked was that of a surgeon. In this he was influenced by Henry Bracken
Henry Bracken
Henry Bracken, M.D. , was a writer on farriery.Bracken was the son of Henry Bracken of Lancaster, and was baptised there 31 October 1697....
, the eminent Lancaster surgeon, with whom he worked as an assistant and pupil. For a year, back in Sedbergh
Sedbergh
Sedbergh is a small town in Cumbria, England. It lies about east of Kendal and about north of Kirkby Lonsdale. The town sits just within the Yorkshire Dales National Park...
, he practised as a surgeon and then, with his accumulated savings of £100 stitched in his clothing, walked to Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
to study medicine and mathematics. Despite his frugality he could not stay long enough to take a degree and he returned to Sedbergh to resume his practice and save in preparation for another austere period of study, this time in London. His stay in the capital was brief, but he gained experience in the London hospitals, attended surgical and medical lectures, and made a contact, with Edward Waring
Edward Waring
Edward Waring was an English mathematician who was born in Old Heath , Shropshire, England and died in Pontesbury, Shropshire, England. He entered Magdalene College, Cambridge as a sizar and became Senior wrangler in 1757. He was elected a Fellow of Magdalene and in 1760 Lucasian Professor of...
, the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, that was to be important for his future work as a mathematician. Returning to Sedbergh with a diploma, he made his practice the best in the north-western dales and soon enjoyed security, even prosperity.
Personal life
On 3 March 1767 he married Ann Thirnbeck of Middleton, near Sedbergh. The one daughter of the marriage, Mary, born on 15 January 1768, was to be an important companion to Dawson in his later years, following the death of his wife in 1812.Mathematics
For over twenty years Dawson maintained his medical practice while also pursuing his work as a mathematician, and it was only from about 1790 that he devoted himself exclusively to mathematical teaching. By then his fame as a teacher was attracting a regular stream of pupils, including Cambridge undergraduates who read with him during the long vacation and others who were preparing for entry to the university. For a fee of about 5 shillings a week for unlimited tuition, in addition to the cost of accommodation and food, sometimes in Dawson's house but more commonly in a local inn, pupils were taught in a characteristic peripatetic fashion. As Adam SedgwickAdam Sedgwick
Adam Sedgwick was one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Devonian period of the geological timescale...
, who read with him in 1804 before going up to Cambridge and subsequently during vacations, recalled, Dawson would seat his pupils, often a dozen or more, at tables about the house and move constantly from one to another, correcting and advising. Dawson's method achieved remarkable results. Between 1781 and 1794, at least seven, possibly eight, of the fourteen senior wranglers at Cambridge had been taught by him, as had four others between 1797 and 1807. Among these were the future chancery barrister John Bell
John Bell (barrister)
John Bell was an English barrister and equity lawyer.Born in Kendal, Westmoreland, Bell was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating senior wrangler in 1786 and becoming a fellow. He entered Gray's Inn in 1789, a pupil of Samuel Romilly, and was called to the bar in 1792...
, the Arabist John Palmer
John Palmer
-People:*John Palmer , U.S. Congressman from New York*John Palmer, 4th Earl of Selborne , British peer and businessman*John Palmer , English actor*John Palmer , British architect...
, the lawyer and anti-slavery campaigner Thomas Harrison, James Inman
James Inman
James Inman was an English mathematician, professor of mathematics at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth.He was born at Tod Hole in Garsdale, the younger son of Richard Inman and Jane Hutchinson. He was educated at Sedbergh Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge, graduating as first...
, who went on to become professor of mathematics at the Royal Naval College
Royal Naval Academy
The Royal Naval Academy was established at Portsmouth Dockyard as a facility to train officers for the Royal Navy. The founders' intentions were to provide an alternative means to recruit officers and to provide standardised training, education and admission.-Training:In 1773, a shore side...
, Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, and George Butler
George Butler (headmaster)
George Butler was an English schoolmaster and divine, headmaster of Harrow School from 1805 to 1829.Son of Weeden Butler , George Butler was educated at the Chelsea school where his father taught and proceeded to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he graduated senior wrangler in 1794...
, later headmaster of Harrow
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
and dean of Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
, whose vivid account of the journey of almost five days between London and Sedbergh and his introduction to Dawson was published in The Sedberghian for December 1881. Pupils who went on to Cambridge and did not achieve the rank of senior wrangler included, in addition to Richard and Adam Sedgwick and Haygarth, the lord chief justice Sir Nicholas Conyngham Tindal
Nicholas Conyngham Tindal
Sir Nicolas Conyngham Tindal was a celebrated English lawyer who successfully defended Queen Caroline at her trial for adultery in 1820...
, the mathematician Miles Bland, who was at Sedbergh School, and several bishops. Among those whose medical interests took them to Edinburgh rather than Cambridge were Robert Willan
Robert Willan
Robert Willan was an English physician and the founder of dermatology as a medical specialty. He received his MD at Edinburgh in 1780 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1809...
, Thomas Garnett, and George Birkbeck
George Birkbeck
George Birkbeck was a British doctor, academic, philanthropist, pioneer in adult education and founder of Birkbeck College.-Biography:...
.
Dawson maintained his active engagement in mathematics into his seventies. But from 1812, with his memory and physical strength failing, he took no further pupils. An anonymous correspondent writing from Trinity College, Cambridge, in the European Magazine urged the university to recognize his status as the first mathematician of England by awarding him an honorary degree. But his original contributions to mathematics were not numerous, and the only formal honour they brought him was election as a corresponding member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society
The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, popularly known as the Lit & Phil, is a learned society in Manchester, England.Established in 1781 as the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, by Thomas Percival, Thomas Barnes and Thomas Henry, other prominent members have included...
.
His earliest and most substantial publication was his Four Propositions, which appeared anonymously in 1769 in an edition that was largely destroyed by fire. In it Dawson identified errors in the calculation that had led Matthew Stewart, the professor of mathematics at Edinburgh, to overestimate the distance between the earth and the sun by more than a quarter. He pursued his argument vigorously when he was attacked by Samuel Horsley
Samuel Horsley
Samuel Horsley was a British churchman, bishop of Rochester from 1792.Entering Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1751, he became LL.B. in 1758 without graduating in arts. In the following year he succeeded his father in the living of Newington Butts in Surrey...
in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society; his reply in the Gentleman's Magazine (40, 1770, pp. 452–3) made no concessions and reinforced the respect in which he was held by several Edinburgh mathematicians and natural philosophers, including John Playfair
John Playfair
John Playfair FRSE, FRS was a Scottish scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is perhaps best known for his book Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth , which summarized the work of James Hutton...
, Lord Webb Seymour, and Henry Lord Brougham, all of whom visited him in Sedbergh. By comparison with Four Propositions his other mathematical publications were slight. The most important of them was a series of rather combative letters signed ‘Wadson’ and published in Charles Hutton's Miscellanea mathematica (1775), in which he criticized a paper by Charles Wildbore on the velocity of water emerging from vessels in motion. Less important but more acrimonious in the response that it engendered was an exchange in which Dawson took the side of Thomas Simpson
Thomas Simpson
Thomas Simpson FRS was a British mathematician, inventor and eponym of Simpson's rule to approximate definite integrals...
against the cantankerous William Emerson
William Emerson (mathematician)
William Emerson , English mathematician, was born at Hurworth, near Darlington, where his father, Dudley Emerson, also a mathematician, taught a school...
by offering an independent analytical demonstration of the existence of an error in Newton's treatment of precession.
Metaphysics and philosophy
Dawson's interests also embraced metaphysics and theology, subjects that he explored in correspondence with a favourite early pupil, the Rev. Thomas Wilson, headmaster of the grammar schools first in SlaidburnSlaidburn
Slaidburn is a village and civil parish within the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England. With a population in 2001 of just under 300, it covers just over 5000 acres of the Forest of Bowland...
and then in Clitheroe
Clitheroe
Clitheroe is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley in Lancashire, England. It is 1½ miles from the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists in the area. It has a population of 14,697...
. Described by Adam Sedgwick as ‘a firm believer and a good sober practical Christian of the old school’, Dawson abhorred the doctrines of David Hume
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
and applauded James Beattie
James Beattie
James Beattie may refer to:*James Beattie *James Beattie , English footballer*Jim Beattie , baseball player*Jim Beattie , Scottish rock musician-See also:...
's attack on Humean scepticism. In a similar spirit he wrote against Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
's The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity (1777), which he regarded as immoral in tendency and false. His 24-page pamphlet outlining his views on the damaging consequences and unsure foundations of an acceptance of determinism, The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity Briefly Invalidated (1781), elicited a dismissive, unsigned rejoinder in the Monthly Review (65, 1781, pp. 66–8), which he answered in an appendix to a second edition of the work in 1803. Although Dawson is said to have retained the respect of Priestley and his other adversaries, his contribution lacked the sophistication that the debate demanded at the highest level and it made little lasting mark.
The impact that Dawson had on those who knew him was heightened by a commanding physical presence well conveyed in the portraits that survive of him. The original of one of the portraits, painted by Joseph Allen
Joseph Allen
Joseph Allen may refer to:* Joseph Allen , member of the eleventh United States Congress* Joseph Allen , Bishop of Bristol and Bishop of Ely* Joseph Allen * Joseph H...
in 1809 and showing Dawson teaching a seated pupil, had already been lost by the mid-nineteenth century, but it survived in the form of a copy by the vicar of Sedbergh, the Revd D. M. Peacock, and an engraving by W. W. Barney. The other, a watercolour painted by William Westall
William Westall
William Bury Westall was an English novelist born in Old Accrington, Lancashire, England.Originally a businessman, he later became a journalist who also wrote about 30 pot-boiler romantic novels with titles including The Old Factory, Strange Crimes and Her Ladyship's Secret...
in 1817 of a sombre and very elderly Dawson, went to private hands. Striking though Dawson's appearance was, however, he was revered above all for his simplicity of manner and a cheerful, benevolent temperament that left him, in Adam Sedgwick's words, ‘without any stiffness or affectation of superiority’.
Death
He died, on 19 September 1820, and a monument high in the nave of St Andrew's ChurchSt Andrew's Church, Sedbergh
St Andrew's Church, Sedbergh, is located in Main Street, Sedbergh, Cumbria, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Ewecross, the archdeaconry of Craven, and the diocese of Bradford. Its benefice is united with those of St Mark, Cautley, and St John the...
in Sedbergh was erected, in the form of a bust of him by Robert William Sievier
Robert William Sievier
Robert William Sievier FRS was a notable English engraver, sculptor and later inventor of the 19th century.-Engraver and sculptor:...
, with an inscription, dated August 1825, by his former pupil John Bell
John Bell (barrister)
John Bell was an English barrister and equity lawyer.Born in Kendal, Westmoreland, Bell was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating senior wrangler in 1786 and becoming a fellow. He entered Gray's Inn in 1789, a pupil of Samuel Romilly, and was called to the bar in 1792...
.