ROWLANDS, GRIFFITH (1761 - 1828), surgeon
Date of birth: 1761
Date of death: 1828
Gender: Male
Occupation: surgeon
Area of activity: Medicine
Author: Melfyn Richard Williams
born in the parish of Llanfair near Harlech, Meironnydd on 9 April 1761. Having spent his apprenticeship as a surgeon in Liverpool, he succeeded in obtaining a place at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. Following completion of seven years of medical education, he was accepted, on 1 August 1782, as a member of the Company of Surgeons, the predecessor of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was a house surgeon in the hospital in London for two years before establishing himself as a surgeon in Chester. In 1785 he was appointed surgeon to the city hospital, a post he occupied for 43 years. Griffith Rowlands was one of the first in Europe to treat a broken hip by sawing away both ends of the bone each side of the fracture in order to seek a better bond - and that over fifty years before the time of anaesthetic. Under his treatment, the left thumb of Thomas Charles of Bala was amputated in 1799. The thumb had frozen as Thomas Charles travelled on a frosty night over the Migneint mountains between the counties of Caernarfon and Merioneth. With Rowlands's help also, a stone weighing two and a quarter ounces was removed from the gall bladder of Thomas Jones of Denbigh (1756 - 1820) in 1802.
Although he spent the greater part of his life in England, he never lost his knowledge of the Welsh language and he was prominent in the activities of the Chester Cymrodorion Soc.
He died on 29 March 1828, a few days before his 66th birthday.
Author
- Melfyn Richard Williams
- Josiah Thomas Jones, Geiriadur Bywgraffyddol o Enwogion Cymru (Aberdâr 1867-70), ii, 526-7
- G. P. Jones, Newyn a Haint yng Ngymru a phynciau meddygol eraill (Caernarfon 1962), 161-63
- Thomas Jones, Idwal Jones (ed.), Hunangofiant y Parch. Thomas Jones Gweinidog yr Efengyl o dref Dinbych: hanes ei fywyd a 'sgrifenwyd ganddo ef ei hun, ar ddymuniad ei gyfaill Mr. Charles, hyd amser marwolaeth y gwr enwog hwnnw, yn 1814 (Aberystwyth 1937), 41-43
Sources
- Wikidata: Q20821138
Additional Links
Published date: 2001
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
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