Caesar Henry Hawkins

Caesar Henry Hawkins (September 19, 1798 - July 20, 1884), British surgeon, son of the Rev. E Hawkins and grandson of the Sir Caesar Hawkins (1711-1786), who was serjeant-surgeon to Kings George II and George III, was born at Bisley, Gloucestershire

He was educated at Christ's Hospital, and entered St George's Hospital , London, in 1818. He was surgeon to the hospital from 1829 to 1861, and in 1862 was made serjeant-surgeon to Queen Victoria. He was president of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1852, and again in 1861; and he delivered the Hunterian oration in 1849. His success in complex surgical cases gave him a great reputation.

For long he was noted as the only surgeon who had succeeded in the operation of ovariotomy in a London hospital. This occurred in 1846, when anaesthetics were unknown. He did much to popularize colotomy . A successful operator, he nevertheless was attached to conservative surgery, and was always more anxious to teach his pupils how to save a limb than how to remove it.

He re-printed his contributions to the medical journals in two volumes, 1874, the more valuable papers being on Tumours, Excision of the Ovarium, Hydrophobia and Snake-bites, Stricture of the Colon, and The Relative Claims of Sir Charles Bell and Magendie to the Discovery of the Functions of the Spinal Nerves.

His brother, Edward Hawkins (1789-1882), was the well-known provost of Oriel, Oxford, who played so great a part in the Tractarian movement.

---