William West was an early-nineteenth-century successful small-town surgeon-apothecary who took a major role in the local movement for medical reform. He published the first series of ovariotomies in England in 1837. His son suffered from a type of infantile spasm which West described in the Lancet in 1841, and which is now known as West's syndrome.
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References
1.
Information about West's activities in the town is taken from the Bridger Sample Books at Maidstone Museum. Details of the financial arrangements with Gorham are in an unpublished manuscript in the possession of Warders Medical Centre, Tonbridge, whose partners practise in an uninterrupted succession from West. See also Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal1848; 1: 411.
2.
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All these operations are reported by King RC. New operations for removal of abdominal tumours. Lancet1836; i: 586–90.
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22.
The details of James's life are taken from: West J. On a peculiar form of infantile spasms. Lancet1841; i; 742, which is West's original description of his son's illness; and Newnham W. History of four cases of eclampsia nutans. In: Cyclopaedia of Obstetrics. Manchester, 1849. It is interesting that this was written for Charles Clay, the man who made ovariotomy respectable. See also Barnes H. On Eclampsia Nutans. Manchester, 1873.
23.
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25.
For information about Langdon Down and Earlswood, see ConorWO. John Langdon Down. London: Royal Society of Medicine Press, 1998. James's death is recorded in the London Metropolitan Archives, H29/NF/B1.
26.
RogerJDulacO.West syndrome, history and nosology. In: Infantile Spasms and West's Syndrome. London: W B Saunders, 1994.
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29.
Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal1848: 1; 411.
