| Authorised form of name | Macewen; Sir; William (1848 - 1924); surgeon |
| Dates | 1848 - 1924 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Woodend, a cottage near Port Bannatyne, Rothesay, Isle of Bute, Scotland |
| Date of birth | 22 June 1848 |
| Place of death | Glasgow |
| Date of death | 22/03/1924 |
| Dates and places | Burial: churchyard of St Blane's Church at Kingarth, Scotland |
| Occupation | surgeon |
| Research field | Surgery |
| Neurosurgery |
| Medicine |
| Activity | Education: local school in Rothesay; collegiate school in Garnethill (1860); MD (Glasg) (1865-1869); Hon LLD (Glasgow)
Career: Assistant surgeon at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary (1875), promoted to full surgeon (1877); developed a surgical pioneering technique to successfully operate on brain abscesses and hematomas and on the spine (1876); demonstrated it was possible to use a precise clinical examination to determine the possible site of a tumour, or lesion in the brain, by observing its effects on the side and extension of alteration in motor and sensory functions (1876); developed bone grafts, and using a special osteotome [now known as Macewen’s osteotome] in knee surgery, both techniques becoming crucial to treating rickets (1877); performed the first successful intracranial surgery where the site of the lesion was localised solely by the preoperative focal epileptic signs (1879); appointed lecturer on Systematic Surgery at the Royal Infirmary School of Medicine (1881); appointed as Surgeon to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow (1883); Regius Professor of Surgery at the University of Glasgow (the post which Lister had held when Macewen was a student) and transferred his surgical activities to the Western Infirmary (1892); helped found the Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers in Erskine (now the Erskine Hospital), Glasgow (1916).
Honours:
Kt 1902
Memberships:
FRCS
President BMA (1922)
Awards/Medals:
Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh (1896) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 13/06/1895 |
| Age at election | 47 |
| Proposer | Alfred Newton; Alex Macalister; Thomas Lauder Brunton; Henry Charlton Bastian; Joseph Lister; David Ferrier; William Turner; John Cleland; Frederick Orpen Bower; Thomas Ri Fraser; George Murray Humphry; Victor Horsley |
| William Turner; John Gray McKendrick; Frederick Orpen Bower; John Cleland; William Tennant Gairdner; David Ferrier; William Watson Cheyne |
| Relationships | Parents: John Macewen (b. 1794), a ship's master, and Janet, née Stevenson. |
| General context | Considered the father of neurosurgery. Contributed to the development of bone graft surgery, the surgical treatment of hernia and of pneumonectomy. Also known for endotracheal anaesthesia.
His development of an aseptic procedure for the operating theatre, and his meticulous scientific research methods, heralded the modern era of surgery. |
| Sources | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB
Obituaries:
Proc Roy Soc Series B 1924 vol 96 pp xxv-xxix signed by W W C
Notes:
Second citation and list of proposers from Supplementary Certificate |
| Royal Society code | NA2160 |
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| EC/1895/14 | Macewen, Sir William: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| EC/1895/15 | Macewen, Sir William: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| RR/17/196 | Referee's report by Sidney Harris Cox Martin, on a paper 'The rôle of the various elements in the development and regeneration of bone' by William Macewen | 19 February 1907 |
| NLB/33/106 | Copy letter from Archibald Geikie, to Sir William Macewen, Fellow of the Royal Society | [29] June 1906 |
| NLB/33/107 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Sir William [Macewen], [Fellow of the Royal Society] | 29 June 1906 |
| NLB/34/375 | Copy letter from Archibald Geikie, to Sir William Macewen, Fellow of the Royal Society | 10 January 1907 |
| NLB/34/236 | Copy letter from Archibald Geikie, to Sir William Macewen, Fellow of the Royal Society | 14 December 1906 |
| NLB/35/366 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Sir William Macewen, Fellow of the Royal Society | 23 May 1907 |
| NLB/35/426 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Sir William Macewen, Fellow of the Royal Society | 31 May 1907 |
| NLB/34/813 | Copy letter from Archibald Geikie, to Sir William Macewen, Fellow of the Royal Society | 13 March 1907 |
| NLB/43/396 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Sir William Macewen, Fellow of the Royal Society | 20 December 1910 |
| NLB/51/18 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society to Sir William Macewen FRS | 20 November 1914 |
| RR/17/195 | Referee's report by Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer, on a paper 'The rôle of the various elements in the development and regeneration of bone' by William Macewen | [February 1907] |
| NLB/56/359 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Sir William Macewen, FRS | 21 January 1919 |
| RR/8/331 | Referee's report by George Busk, on a paper 'Observations concerning transplantation of bone. Illustrated by a case of inter-human osseous transplantation, whereby over two-thirds of the shaft of a humerus was restored' by William Macewen | 10 May 1881 |
| NLB/66/309 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Sir [William] Watson Cheyne, Bart., FRS | 7 April 1924 |
| RR/17/197 | Referee's report by William Watson Cheyne, on a paper 'The rôle of the various elements in the development and regeneration of bone' by William Macewen | [March 1907] |
| NLB/34/551 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Sir William Macewen, Fellow of the Royal Society | 6 February 1907 |
| NLB/34/842 | Copy letter from Archibald Geikie, to Sir William Macewen, Fellow of the Royal Society | 18 March 1907 |
| NLB/66/264 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to J. Patrick Esq., Charing Cross, Glasgow | 31 March 1924 |
| RR/25/29 | Referee's report by William Macewen, on a paper 'Recherches anatomo-cliniques sur les névromes d'amputations douloureux. Nouvelles contributions à l'étude de la régénération nerveuse et du neurotropisme' by G Marinesco | [January 1919] |
| MC/26/149 | Letter from James Maclehose, James Maclehose & Sons, Publishers to the University, 61 Vincent Street, Glasgow, to The Secretary, The Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W | 11 January 1911 |
| MC/22/84 | Letter from Archibald Geikie, The Royal Society, Burlington House, London to [13 Fellows named on enclosed list] | 23 January 1907 |
| MC/22/205 | Letter from William Macewen, 3 Woodside Crescent, Charing Cross, Galsgow, to Sir Archibald Geikie | 12 December 1906 |
| MC/22/206 | Letter from William Macewen, 3 Woodside Crescent, Charing Cross, Galsgow, to [Robert William Frederick] Harrison, Secretary of the Royal Society | 22 January 1907 |
| MC/22/207 | Letter from William Macewen, 3 Woodside Crescent, Charing Cross, Galsgow, to [Robert William Frederick] Harrison, Secretary of the Royal Society | 5 February 1907 |
| MC/22/208 | Letter from William Macewen, 3 Woodside Crescent, Charing Cross, Galsgow, to [Robert William Frederick] Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society | 7 February 1907 |
| MC/22/209 | Letter from William Macewen, 3 Woodside Crescent, Charing Cross, Galsgow, to Sir Archibald Geikie | 15 March 1907 |
| MC/22/211 | Letter from William Macewen, 3 Woodside Crescent, Charing Cross, Galsgow, to [Robert William Frederick] Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society | 5 November 1907 |
| MC/22 | Volume 22 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1907 |