Welsh Journals

On leaving school William was apprenticed to Joseph Hodgson, whose skill and philosophic attainments as a surgeon were well known in the midlands. There is no doubt that young Bowman applied himself with zeal to the scientific side of the profession, especially anatomy and physiology. He worked unceasingly in the local hospitals, and at twenty-one years of age came to London, and joined the medical school of King's College, coming under the influence of Todd and John Simon, and at twenty-two he visited hospitals in Holland, Germany, Vienna and Paris. Then returning to King's College he was appointed Junior Demonstrator of Anatomy and Curator of the Museum. In 1840 he passed the College of Surgeons, and 1844 was elected Fellow. This is about the period of the founding of King's College Hospital, then near Lincolns Inn Fields, in recent years removed to Denmark Hill. Here he was soon appointed on the surgical staff but a few years later resigned in consequence of the pressure of private practice. In 1846 he became associated with the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields as surgeon and this work he continued for 30 years. As a result of one branch of his anatomical research he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at the unusually early age of twenty-five, and for another branch of similar investigation he received the Royal Medal of the same society in the following year. But from a literary point of view his greatest work was probably Physiological Anatomy and Physiology of Man." written in conjunction with Dr. Todd between the years 1843 and 1856, a work which has been described as constituting an epoch, and being the first physiological work which contained histology-- the accurate description of the organs as shown by the microscope. This work admittedly displayed an immense superiority in microscopical detail over other works of the same period. This result was due mainly to the fact that Bowman had been indefatigable in the study of the microscope, and at the same time had the draughtsman's skill to transfer the results to illustra- tion. So true was his hand that many of his drawings were made -directly on to the wood blocks. His prolonged and careful study -of the microscope had also the effect of preparing him for ophthalmic surgery, in which he subsequently became so celebrated; and it would appear that he was impelled towards