Fergusson, SIR WILLIAM

Fergusson, SIR WILLIAM, surgeon, was born at Prestonpans, Scotland, on 20th March 1808. He studied medicine in the schools of Edinburgh, and was subsequently (1836) elected a surgeon in the infirmary. But in 1840 he left Edinburgh for London, having accepted the chair of Surgery in King's College, together with the post of surgeon in the hospital attached to the college. In 1866 he was made a baronet, in 1867 serjeant-surgeon to the Queen, and in 1870 he became president of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. He died in London on 10th February 1877. As a surgeon he proved himself a fit rival to Liston and Syme, performing his operations with great boldness, skill, celerity, and coolness. He especially distinguished himself in cases of stone, cleft palate, diseased leg and arm bones, diseased jaw, tumour, and hare-lip. See H. Smith, Sir W. Fergusson, a Biographical Sketch (Lond. 1877).