"Father of British Physiology" William Sharpey Clipped Signature Display For Sale

Up for sale a RARE! "Father of British Physiology" William Sharpey Clipped Signature From a Letter. 

British physiology". Sharpey was born

in Arbroath on 1 April 1802 the youngest son of the five

children Mary Balfour and Henry Sharpy (sic), a shipowner from Folkestone who died before Sharpey was born. William

was educated at the high school in Arbroath and in November 1817 began studies

at the University of Edinburgh,

firstly studying humanities and natural philosophy. In

1818 he moved to the medical classes, learning anatomy from Professor John Barclay,

who then was lecturing in the extra-academical school. In

1821 Sharpey graduated with an MB ChB and was admitted a member of the Edinburgh College of

Surgeons. He then went to London to broaden his anatomical experience in the

private school of Joshua Brookes in

Blenheim Street. He went to Paris in the autumn, and remained there for nearly

a year, learning clinical surgery from Guillaume Dupuytren in

the wards of the Hôtel Dieu, and operative

surgery from Jacques Lisfranc de St.

Martin. Here he made the acquaintance of James Syme, with whom he kept up a correspondence until Syme's

death in 1870. In

August 1823 Sharpey was awarded his doctorate (MD) from the University of

Edinburgh, with his thesis De Ventriculi Carcinomate, and then

returned to Paris, where he spent most of 1824. He then appears to have settled

for a time in Arbroath, where he began to practise under his step-father, Dr

Arrott; but he then set out on a long hike in Europe, by foot through France to

Switzerland, and on to Italy. In 1828 he stayed at Padua to

work under Bartolomeo Panizza. He was

then in Berlin for nine months working under Karl Rudolphi, and after that was at Heidelberg under Friedrich Tiedemann, and

at Vienna. Sharpey established himself in Edinburgh in 1829, and

in the following year he obtained the fellowship of the College of Surgeons of

Edinburgh, presenting a probationary essay On the Pathology and

Treatment of False Joints. The diploma of fellow qualified him to become a

teacher in Edinburgh; but in 1831 he again spent three months in Berlin. In

1831–1832, with Allen Thomson, who taught

physiology, he gave a first course of lectures on systematic anatomy in

the Extramural

School of Medicine in Edinburgh. The association of Sharpey with

Thomson lasted during the remainder of Sharpey's stay in Edinburgh. He was

elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in

1834, his proposer being Sir Robert Christison. At this time he lived at 3 Alva Street

in Edinburgh's West End. In

July 1836 Sharpey was appointed to the chair of anatomy and physiology in

the University of London in

succession to Jones Quain. In this

capacity Sharpey gave the first complete course of lectures on physiology and

minute anatomy. His lectures then continued for 38 years. Sharpey was appointed

in 1840 one of the examiners in anatomy at the university of London, and he was

also a member of the senate of the University. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal

Society on 9 May 1839. In 1846 he described the skeletal

loadbearing fibres that now bear his name, Sharpey's fibres. He was made a member of its council in 1844,

and was appointed one of the secretaries in place of Thomas Bell in

November 1853, an office which he held until his retirement. He was also for 15

years, from April 1861, one of the members appointed by the Crown on the

general council of medical education and registration. Sharpey was also one of

the trustees of the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. In 1859 he received the honorary doctorate (LLD) for

his literary works from the University of Edinburgh. His

pupils included Michael Foster, George Oliver, and Burdon Sanderson. Sharpey

was a correspondent and friend of Charles Darwin. He was also on the Commission on Scientific

Instruction and the Advancement of Science, and was also a Fellow of the Geological Society.