When George Mossman, MD arrived in Bradford in 1787, he claimed to be a graduate of Edinburgh University and thus fully qualified to practise as a Physician. But after a few years it was revealed he had little medical education and had purchased his degree from St Andrews University. His career, however, apparently was unaffected by this and other revelations, and he went on to write several acclaimed essays and journal articles, and became Bradford's most popular and revered physician.
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References
1.
FieldhouseJ.Bradford: Rev ed.Bradford: Watmoughs and City of Bradford Metropolitan Council, Libraries Division, 1978: P. 94
2.
SharpWilliamDr was from an old Bradford family, and the nephew and pupil of William Hey, FRS, the renowned surgeon of Leeds. He practised in the town until his death; he was appointed first surgeon to the Bradford Infirmary when it was established in 1825
3.
SharpWilliamDr succeeded to his uncle's practice and his position at the Infirmary. He left Bradford in 1843 and moved to Rugby where he began teaching natural science at Rugby School, an innovation in public schools. He also became a successful homeopathic practitioner and wrote extensively on the subject
4.
SharpW, Correspondence with Dr Bell, Bradford Archives, DB16/3b
5.
Bradford Observer, 1836, Quoted In: HoweGM. Man, environment and disease in Britain: A medical geography of Britain through the ages.Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1972. p. 170
6.
FieldhouseJ. (op. cit. ref. 1): P. 74
7.
BradfordGP, and surgeon, noted particularly for his investigations into anthrax (Woolsorters' Disease)
8.
BellJH. Some fragments of local medical history. Bradford Antiquary1888;1:90–5
9.
MossmanG.Observations on the Brunonian Practice of Physic; Including A Reply to an Anonymous Publication, Reprobating the Use of Stimulants in Fevers.Bradford: Nicholson, 1788
10.
HailstoneSamuel (1768–1851), came to Bradford from York as an articled clerk in 1783
11.
HailstoneS.A Dose for the Doctor; or, A Bitter Pill for George Mossman: Containing an Account of his Life and Adventures on This Side of the Tweed, and Ending with his Conversion, by one of His Majesty's Justices.London, 1796
12.
A complete typed transcript of Mossman's reply is to be found in the Mossman Family Records. Bradford Archives, 60D97. Records deposited as a gift by Capt CH Owen of Chichester, West Sussex
13.
HailstoneS.The Dose Repeated, or Another Pill for George Mossman. London, 1796. Unless otherwise stated all italicised quotations in the text are from these pamphlets
14.
PaineThomas (1737–1809). Revolutionary and influential radical, author of The Rights of Man, 1791
15.
GarnettThomasDr did not stay long in Bradford but moved to the more promising town of Harrogate and from there to a distinguished career as Professor of Chemistry in the Andersonian Institution, Glasgow, and thence to London where he lectured at the Royal Institution before his early death
16.
Hailstone's own archives include an intriguing pseudonymous poem entitled ‘A healing plaster for a late disaster’ by ‘Apothecarius’, clearly alluding to Mossman's dubious moral behaviour which had led to a venereal infection that he had passed on to his wife. Hailstone Collection, Bradford Archives, DB1 5/22. George Mossman married: I. 1792 -Elizabeth Ramsbotham (1774–1797), daughter of a local millowner. ii. 1812 - Anne Elizabeth Ramsbotham (1788–1870), widow of his brother-in-law Henry Ramsbotham (d. 1810)
17.
BynumWF. Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994: P. 4
18.
LoudonI.Medical Care and the General Practitioner, 1750–1850.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986: P. 24
19.
AlvinC.Medical Care and Treatment in Nineteenth Century Bradford: Unpublished PhD Thesis, Bradford: University of Bradford, 1998: Pp. 24–9
20.
A directory of the town's principal inhabitants in 1792 shows there to have been a long-established druggist and six surgeons in Bradford. There were also several apothecaries, some of whom undertook minor surgery
21.
GarrisonF.An Introduction to the History of Medicine: 4th ed.Philadelphia: Saunders, 1967: P. 391
22.
2s · 6d (two shillings and sixpence, or half a crown), was equivalent to 12½p in present day currency; 2½d equated to 1p, and thus 1s (comprising 12d) equates to 5p nowadays
23.
LoudonI, (op. cit. ref. 18): P. 83
24.
Probably ether, although not specified in this case, in which the patient also required two further visits, each charged at 6d for spirits
25.
BarkPeruvian, also known as cinchona or quinine, was used as a stomachic and tonic as well as in the treatment of fevers; it was an expensive drug, imported from South America
26.
WarburtonAlvin C. James, Apothecary of Wibsey: Notebook, 1785–1788. Bradford Antiquary, 1999. 3rd series (7), pp. 47–54
27.
OgdenC.The History of Bradford.Bradford: Bradford and District Newspaper Co., 1935: P. 7
28.
Brunonians were the followers of the Scottish physician John Brown (1735–1788). His Elementa medicinae, 1780, promoted the theory that all disease was caused by an excess or deficit of ‘excitability’, or the capacity to react to external stimuli
29.
Early in the twentieth century a later member of the Mossman family checked these facts; both Edinburgh University and St Andrews University confirmed Hailstone's earlier findings
30.
DavisonDr, a physician in Bradford and Leeds for a short period until 1800, and evidently a supporter of Hailstone
31.
MossmanG, (op. cit. ref. 9), from which quotations in the text are taken
32.
The epidemic preceded the mid-nineteenth century classification of common fevers, but the description and aetiology suggest it was typhoid
33.
Huxham's Tincture was a popular mixture combining cinchona, orange peel, snakeroot and other ingredients, developed by Dr John Huxham (1692–1768) of Plymouth in the 1750s as a treatment for intermittent fever
34.
MossmanG.On the nature and cure of the puerperal fever. London Medical and Physical Journal1803;10:11–20
35.
MossmanG.Essay to elucidate the Nature, Origin and Connexion of Scrofula and Glandular Consumption; including a brief History of the Effects of Ilkley Spaw. With ##Observations on the Medicinal Powers of the Digitalis; and Strictures on the Opinions of Dr Lettsome, relative to the Virtues of that Plant. Bradford [1800]. The editors of the London Medical and Physical Journal1800:3;287, in a succinct review, recommended the Essay ‘not so much on account of the novelty of opinion expressed in it, as the diligence with which the present opinions are collected and exhibited’. ‘Spaw’ was a local variant spelling of ‘Spa’
36.
A town in the East Riding of Yorkshire
37.
Withering'sAn Account of the Fox-glove, 1785, was published after the author originally heard from an old country woman of the use of foxglove for dropsy
38.
Mossman's main contributions were as follows: On the effects of digitalis on consumption. London Medical and Physical Journal1799:2;35–8, 238–42, and 1800:3;311–15. On consumption. 1800:4;308–17. On digitalis, in reply to Harlestonensis. 1808:XX;328–33
39.
Leeds Mercury, 1 June 1824. Letter from ‘AH, A Scotch Physician’
40.
Mossman's three colleagues were Dr William Maud (1765–1835), surgeon, from Bradford's Quaker community which provided many of the town's medical men; Dr Thomas Outhwaite (1760-?), Bradford surgeon and apothecary, the middle member of three generations of a prominent local medical family; and Dr William Sharp the elder, see ref. 2, above
41.
London Medical and Physical Journal1799:2;238–42
42.
His contribution to a heated debate on Apoplexy was published with a prescient footnote stating that the Editors ‘are glad to see the subject in the hands of Dr Mossman, but doubt whether all his readers will agree in opinion with him’. London Medical and Physical Journal1803:9;409
43.
Bradford Observer, 24 December 1856. Letter from ‘A Sexagenarian’
44.
CudworthW.Rambles Around Horton: Historical, Topographical and Descriptive.Bradford: Thomas Brear, 1886: Pp. 58–9
45.
JamesJ.Continuations and Additions to the History of Bradford, and its Parish.Bradford: Longmans, Green, 1866: P. 316
46.
Both of George Mossman's sons joined the legal profession and practised in Bradford; Samuel Hailstone's first wife was the daughter of a Bradford surgeon
47.
BellJH, (op. cit. ref. 8)
48.
MercuryLeeds (op. cit. ref. 39)
49.
SimpsonJ.The Journal of Dr John Simpson of Bradford, 1825.Bradford: City of Bradford Metropolitan Council, Libraries Division, 1981
