Joseph Henry Green
Encyclopedia
Joseph Henry Green was an English surgeon who became the literary executor of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
.
. His mother was Frances Cline, sister of Henry Cline
, the surgeon. At the age of fifteen he went to Germany and studied for three years, his mother accompanying him. He was then apprenticed at the College of Surgeons to his uncle, Henry Cline, and followed the practice at St. Thomas's Hospital. While still a pupil he married, on 25 May 1813, Anne Eliza Hammond, daughter of a surgeon, and sister of a class-fellow.
On 1 December 1815 he received the diploma of the College of Surgeons, and set up in surgical practice in Lincoln's Inn Fields
, where he remained until his retirement to the country. In 1813 he had been appointed demonstrator of anatomy (unpaid) at St. Thomas's Hospital. In the autumn of 1817 he went to Berlin to take a private course of instruction in philosophy with Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Solger
, to whom he had been recommended by Ludwig Tieck
in London. He had already met Samuel Taylor Coleridge
, who came to meet Tieck more than once at Green's house.
In 1820 he was elected surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital, on the death of his cousin, Henry Cline the younger. In 1824 he became professor of anatomy at the College of Surgeons, delivering four annual courses of twelve lectures on comparative anatomy
, using the textbook of Carl Gustav Carus
. In 1825 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. In the same year he became professor of anatomy to the Royal Academy
, then located at Somerset House
, where he lectured a year on anatomy in its relation to the fine arts. He retired from this post in 1852. From 1818 he had shared the lectureship first on anatomy and then on surgery at St. Thomas's with Sir Astley Cooper, who retired in 1825, and wished to assign his share of the lectures to his two nephews, Bransby Cooper and Charles Aston Key. Green, who had paid Cooper £1,000 for his own half share, acquiesced, but the hospital authorities did not, whereupon Sir Astley started lectures in connection with Guy's Hospital
, which had up to that time sent its pupils to the medical school of St. Thomas's.
On the establishment of King's College in 1830, Green accepted the chair of surgery. He had a reputation, especially in lithotomy
, for which he always used Cline's gorget
..
visited Coleridge at Highgate
.
Green over the years spent much time in conversation with Coleridge, and in his Poetical Works, Coleridge inserted two pieces of verse by Green (Pickering's ed. of 1847, vol. ii.), a tribute to friendship. Green was to be his literary executor
, and he was so named in Coleridge's will. He was to dispose of manuscripts and books for the benefit of the family; but as many of the books (with annotations) would be necessary for the carrying out of another part of Green's executory duties, namely the publication of a system of Coleridgean philosophy, Green was asked, in so many words, to purchase the books himself, which he did. They were later widely dispersed, in the British Museum
, a large number in the possession of Coleridge's descendants, and many others in private hands, both in the United Kingdom and in the United States. Accused in 1854 by Clement Mansfield Ingleby
in Notes and Queries
of withholding from publication works which Coleridge had left more or less ready for the press, Green wrote to explain what it was that he held in trust from Coleridge.
In the same year that Coleridge died (1834), Green's father also died and left him a large fortune. He then accepted Coleridge's legacy as an obligation. In 1836 he gave up his private practice in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and lived for the rest of his life at The Mount, Hadley
, near Barnet
. He resigned also in 1837 his chair at King's College, but retained for seventeen years longer (until 1852) the surgeoncy to St. Thomas's Hospital, and a share of the lectures on surgery for part of that time.
With a view to a Coleridgean synthesis, he undertook a course of reading, revived his knowledge of Greek, learned Hebrew, and worked on Sanskrit. An introduction by him to the Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit is prefixed to the edition of 1849.
In 1853 he was made D.C.L. at Oxford, on the occasion of Lord Derby
's installation as chancellor. The General Medical Council
having been established by the Medical Act of 1858, Green became the representative on it of the College of Surgeons. Two years after he was appointed by the government president in succession to Sir B. Brodie, and held that office until his death.
Having suffered in his later years from inherited gout, he had an acute seizure on 1 November 1863, and died in his house at Hadley on 13 December His wife survived him; he had no issue.
Two of his Royal Academy lectures, on 'Beauty' and on 'Expression', were published in the Athenæum 16 and 23 December 1843.
The claims made by the Cooper family led to a quarrel. Green's part in it was a long pamphlet ('Letter to Sir Astley Cooper on the Establishment of an Anatomical and Surgical School at Guy's Hospital,' London, 1825), which stated the legal case.
He published, chiefly in The Lancet
, a large number of lectures, clinical comments, and cases. In 1832 he gave the opening address (published) of the winter session, taking as his subject the functions or duties of the professions of divinity, law, and medicine according to Coleridge.
In the College of Surgeons he advocated reforms; the amended constitution of 1843, providing for a new class of fellows and the election of the council by the fellows, was in accord with his views published in a pamphlet in 1841 ('The Touchstone of Medical Reform'). He had already published two pamphlets on medical education and reform: 'Distinction without Separation: a Letter on the Present State of the Profession,' 1831, and 'Suggestions respecting Medical Reform,' 1834.
As Hunterian orator at the college in 1841 he gave before a distinguished audience an obscure address on 'Vital Dynamics,' an attempt to connect science with the philosophy of Coleridge. Re-appointed Hunterian orator in 1847, he supplemented his former Coleridgean exposition with another in the same vein on 'Mental Dynamics; or, Groundwork of a Professional Education.' He made little definite progress with the Coleridgean system; but before he died he compiled a work from Coleridge's marginalia, fragments, and recollected oral teaching, under the title 'Spiritual Philosophy, founded on the teaching of S. T. Coleridge,' which was brought out, in two volumes (1865), with a memoir of Green, by his friend and former pupil Sir John Simon. The first volume, of which the first chapter was dictated to Green by Coleridge himself, is occupied with a groundwork of principles; the second volume is theological.
Attribution
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
.
Life
Green was the only son of Joseph Green, a prosperous merchant, and was born on 1 November 1791, at the house over his father's office in London WallLondon Wall
London Wall was the defensive wall first built by the Romans around Londinium, their strategically important port town on the River Thames in what is now the United Kingdom, and subsequently maintained until the 18th century. It is now the name of a road in the City of London running along part of...
. His mother was Frances Cline, sister of Henry Cline
Henry Cline
-Life:Cline was born in London, and was educated at Merchant Taylors' School. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to Mr. Thomas Smith, one of the surgeons to St. Thomas's Hospital, and before the close of his apprenticeship he frequently lectured for Else, then lecturer on anatomy. On 2 June...
, the surgeon. At the age of fifteen he went to Germany and studied for three years, his mother accompanying him. He was then apprenticed at the College of Surgeons to his uncle, Henry Cline, and followed the practice at St. Thomas's Hospital. While still a pupil he married, on 25 May 1813, Anne Eliza Hammond, daughter of a surgeon, and sister of a class-fellow.
On 1 December 1815 he received the diploma of the College of Surgeons, and set up in surgical practice in Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London, UK. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in developing London", as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner observes...
, where he remained until his retirement to the country. In 1813 he had been appointed demonstrator of anatomy (unpaid) at St. Thomas's Hospital. In the autumn of 1817 he went to Berlin to take a private course of instruction in philosophy with Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Solger
Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Solger
Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Solger was a German philosopher and academic. He is known as a theorist of Romanticism, and of irony.-Biography:...
, to whom he had been recommended by Ludwig Tieck
Ludwig Tieck
Johann Ludwig Tieck was a German poet, translator, editor, novelist, writer of Novellen, and critic, who was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-Early life:...
in London. He had already met Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
, who came to meet Tieck more than once at Green's house.
In 1820 he was elected surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital, on the death of his cousin, Henry Cline the younger. In 1824 he became professor of anatomy at the College of Surgeons, delivering four annual courses of twelve lectures on comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny .-Description:...
, using the textbook of Carl Gustav Carus
Carl Gustav Carus
Carl Gustav Carus was a German physiologist and painter, born at Leipzig.A friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, he was a many-sided man: a doctor, a naturalist, a scientist and a psychologist and an advocate of the theory that health of body and mind depends on the equipoise of antagonistic...
. In 1825 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. In the same year he became professor of anatomy to the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
, then located at Somerset House
Somerset House
Somerset House is a large building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, England, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The central block of the Neoclassical building, the outstanding project of the architect Sir William Chambers, dates from 1776–96. It...
, where he lectured a year on anatomy in its relation to the fine arts. He retired from this post in 1852. From 1818 he had shared the lectureship first on anatomy and then on surgery at St. Thomas's with Sir Astley Cooper, who retired in 1825, and wished to assign his share of the lectures to his two nephews, Bransby Cooper and Charles Aston Key. Green, who had paid Cooper £1,000 for his own half share, acquiesced, but the hospital authorities did not, whereupon Sir Astley started lectures in connection with Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital is a large NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in south east London, England. It is administratively a part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. It is a large teaching hospital and is home to the King's College London School of Medicine...
, which had up to that time sent its pupils to the medical school of St. Thomas's.
On the establishment of King's College in 1830, Green accepted the chair of surgery. He had a reputation, especially in lithotomy
Lithotomy
Lithotomy from Greek for "lithos" and "tomos" , is a surgical method for removal of calculi, stones formed inside certain hollow organs, such as the kidneys , bladder , and gallbladder , that cannot exit naturally through the urinary system or biliary tract...
, for which he always used Cline's gorget
Gorget
A gorget originally was a steel or leather collar designed to protect the throat. It was a feature of older types of armour and intended to protect against swords and other non-projectile weapons...
..
Coleridgean
Green met Coleridge in June 1817. A group calling themselves the "Friends of German Literature" invited Tieck, and they gathered at Green's house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Through James Gillman, Green with Tieck and Henry Crabb RobinsonHenry Crabb Robinson
Henry Crabb Robinson , diarist, was born in Bury St. Edmunds, England.He was articled to an attorney in Colchester. Between 1800 and 1805 he studied at various places in Germany, and became acquainted with nearly all the great men of letters there, including Goethe, Schiller, Johann Gottfried...
visited Coleridge at Highgate
Highgate
Highgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....
.
Green over the years spent much time in conversation with Coleridge, and in his Poetical Works, Coleridge inserted two pieces of verse by Green (Pickering's ed. of 1847, vol. ii.), a tribute to friendship. Green was to be his literary executor
Literary executor
A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of a literary estate. According to Wills, Administration and Taxation: a practical guide "A will may appoint different executors to deal with different parts of the estate...
, and he was so named in Coleridge's will. He was to dispose of manuscripts and books for the benefit of the family; but as many of the books (with annotations) would be necessary for the carrying out of another part of Green's executory duties, namely the publication of a system of Coleridgean philosophy, Green was asked, in so many words, to purchase the books himself, which he did. They were later widely dispersed, in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, a large number in the possession of Coleridge's descendants, and many others in private hands, both in the United Kingdom and in the United States. Accused in 1854 by Clement Mansfield Ingleby
Clement Mansfield Ingleby
Clement Mansfield Ingleby was a Shakespearian scholar, perhaps best remembered as John Payne Collier's nemesis.-Early life and education:...
in Notes and Queries
Notes and Queries
Notes and Queries is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to "English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism". Its emphasis is on "the factual rather than the speculative"...
of withholding from publication works which Coleridge had left more or less ready for the press, Green wrote to explain what it was that he held in trust from Coleridge.
In the same year that Coleridge died (1834), Green's father also died and left him a large fortune. He then accepted Coleridge's legacy as an obligation. In 1836 he gave up his private practice in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and lived for the rest of his life at The Mount, Hadley
Monken Hadley
Monken Hadley is a place in the London Borough of Barnet. An ancient country village north of Barnet, it is now a suburban development situated on the very edge of Greater London north north-west of Charing Cross, while retaining much of its rural character....
, near Barnet
Barnet
High Barnet or Chipping Barnet is a place in the London Borough of Barnet, North London, England. It is a suburban development built around a twelfth-century settlement and is located north north-west of Charing Cross. Its name is often abbreviated to Barnet, which is also the name of the London...
. He resigned also in 1837 his chair at King's College, but retained for seventeen years longer (until 1852) the surgeoncy to St. Thomas's Hospital, and a share of the lectures on surgery for part of that time.
With a view to a Coleridgean synthesis, he undertook a course of reading, revived his knowledge of Greek, learned Hebrew, and worked on Sanskrit. An introduction by him to the Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit is prefixed to the edition of 1849.
Later life
In 1835 the council of the College of Surgeons had chosen him for life into their body; he was elected a member of the court of examiners in 1846 (also a life appointment), and twice filled the office of president of the college (1849-50 and 1858-9).In 1853 he was made D.C.L. at Oxford, on the occasion of Lord Derby
Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, KG, PC was an English statesman, three times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and to date the longest serving leader of the Conservative Party. He was known before 1834 as Edward Stanley, and from 1834 to 1851 as Lord Stanley...
's installation as chancellor. The General Medical Council
General Medical Council
The General Medical Council registers and regulates doctors practising in the United Kingdom. It has the power to revoke or restrict a doctor's registration if it deems them unfit to practise...
having been established by the Medical Act of 1858, Green became the representative on it of the College of Surgeons. Two years after he was appointed by the government president in succession to Sir B. Brodie, and held that office until his death.
Having suffered in his later years from inherited gout, he had an acute seizure on 1 November 1863, and died in his house at Hadley on 13 December His wife survived him; he had no issue.
Works
Previous to 1820 he had published anonymously 'Outlines of a Course of Dissections,' and in that year he enlarged the book into his 'Dissector's Manual,' with plates, said to have been the first work of the same kind or scope yet published. He wrote no original memoirs except a minor piece in Med.-Chir. Trans. xii. 46.Two of his Royal Academy lectures, on 'Beauty' and on 'Expression', were published in the Athenæum 16 and 23 December 1843.
The claims made by the Cooper family led to a quarrel. Green's part in it was a long pamphlet ('Letter to Sir Astley Cooper on the Establishment of an Anatomical and Surgical School at Guy's Hospital,' London, 1825), which stated the legal case.
He published, chiefly in The Lancet
The Lancet
The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is one of the world's best known, oldest, and most respected general medical journals...
, a large number of lectures, clinical comments, and cases. In 1832 he gave the opening address (published) of the winter session, taking as his subject the functions or duties of the professions of divinity, law, and medicine according to Coleridge.
In the College of Surgeons he advocated reforms; the amended constitution of 1843, providing for a new class of fellows and the election of the council by the fellows, was in accord with his views published in a pamphlet in 1841 ('The Touchstone of Medical Reform'). He had already published two pamphlets on medical education and reform: 'Distinction without Separation: a Letter on the Present State of the Profession,' 1831, and 'Suggestions respecting Medical Reform,' 1834.
As Hunterian orator at the college in 1841 he gave before a distinguished audience an obscure address on 'Vital Dynamics,' an attempt to connect science with the philosophy of Coleridge. Re-appointed Hunterian orator in 1847, he supplemented his former Coleridgean exposition with another in the same vein on 'Mental Dynamics; or, Groundwork of a Professional Education.' He made little definite progress with the Coleridgean system; but before he died he compiled a work from Coleridge's marginalia, fragments, and recollected oral teaching, under the title 'Spiritual Philosophy, founded on the teaching of S. T. Coleridge,' which was brought out, in two volumes (1865), with a memoir of Green, by his friend and former pupil Sir John Simon. The first volume, of which the first chapter was dictated to Green by Coleridge himself, is occupied with a groundwork of principles; the second volume is theological.
External links
Attribution