George Gulliver (4 June 1804 – 17 November 1882), was an Englishanatomist andphysiologist.
Gulliver was born atBanbury, Oxfordshire, on 4 June 1804, and after an apprenticeship with local surgeons entered atSt. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, where he becameprosector toAbernethy and dresser toLawrence (afterwards Sir William). Becoming aMember of the Royal College of Surgeons in June 1826 he was gazetted hospital assistant to the forces in May 1827, and afterwards became surgeon to theRoyal Horse Guards (the Blues).
He was elected aFellow of the Royal Society in 1838,Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1843, and in 1852 a member of the council of the latter body. In 1861 he was Hunterian professor of comparative anatomy and physiology, and in 1863 delivered the Hunterian oration, in which he strongly put forward the neglected claims ofWilliam Hewson andJohn Quekett as discoverers.
For some years before his death he had retired from the army, and devoted himself to research and writing, but became gradually enfeebled bygout. Many of his later papers were written when he was confined to his bed. He died atCanterbury on 17 November 1882, leaving one son, George, assistant physician toSt. Thomas' Hospital.
Gulliver wrote no systematic work, although he edited an English translation of Gerber'sGeneral and Minute Anatomy of Man and the Mammalia in 1842, adding, besides numerous notes, an appendix giving an account of his own researches on the blood,chyle,lymph, &c. In 1846 he edited for the Sydenham SocietyThe Works of William Hewson, F.R.S., with copious notes and a biography of Hewson. He also supplied notes toRudolph Wagner'sPhysiology, translated byDr. Willis (1844). His Hunterian lectures on the "Blood, Lymph, and Chyle of Vertebrates" were published in theMedical Times and Gazette from 2 August 1862 to 13 June 1863. Most of his work is scattered through various periodicals; a list of them is given in the Royal Society'sCatalogue of Scientific Papers. Gulliver was the first to give extensive tables of measurements and full observations on the shape and structure of thered blood-corpuscles in man and many vertebrates, resulting in several interesting discoveries. In some points he corrected the prevailing views adopted fromJohn Hunter as to thecoagulation of the blood, at the same time confirming other views of Hunter; he noted the fibrillar form of clotfibrin, the so-called molecular base of chyle, the prevalence of naked nuclei in chyle and lymph, and the intimate connection of thethymus gland with thelymphatic system. His work in connection with the formation and repair of bone had considerable significance. To pathology he rendered important services, showing the prevalence ofcholesterine andfatty degeneration in several organs and morbid products, the significance of the softening of clots of fibrin, and some of the characteristics oftubercle. In botany also Gulliver did original work, proving the important varieties of character inraphides,pollen, and some tissues, and their taxonomic value.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: "Gulliver, George".Dictionary of National Biography. London:Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
