Jonathan Hutchinson was born in Selby, Yorkshire, of Quaker parents and was educated in the local school. Then he was apprenticed for five years to Caleb Williams, an apothecary and surgeon in York.[1]
He entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1850 (and a fellow in 1862), and rapidly gained a reputation as a skilful operator and a scientific inquirer. While a student, Hutchinson chose a career in surgery from 1854 on, under the influence and help of his mentor, Sir James Paget (1814–99). In 1851, he studied ophthalmology at Moorfields and practised it at London Ophthalmic Hospital. Other hospitals where he practised in the following years were the Lock Hospital, the City of London Chest Hospital, the London Hospital, the Metropolitan Hospitals, and the Blackfriars Hospital for Diseases of the Skin.[2]
His intense activity in so many medical specialities is reflected also in his involvement with several medical societies. He was president of the Hunterian Society in 1869 and 1870, professor of surgery and pathology at the Royal College of Surgeons from 1877 to 1882, president of the Pathological Society (1879–80), of the Ophthalmological Society (1883), of the Neurological Society (1887) of the Medical Society (1890), and of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society from 1894 to 1896. In 1889, he was president of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was a member of two royal commissions, that of 1881 to inquire into the provision for smallpox and fever cases in the London hospitals, and that of 1889–96 on vaccination and leprosy. He also acted as honorary secretary to the Sydenham Society.[2] In June 1882 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.[3]
Hutchinson's activity in the cause of scientific surgery and in advancing the study of the natural sciences was unwearying. He published more than 1,200 medical articles and also produced the quarterly Archives of Surgery from 1890 to 1900, being its only contributor. His lectures on neuropathogenesis, gout, leprosy, diseases of the tongue, etc., were full of original observation; but his principal work was connected with the study of syphilis, on which he became the first living authority.[2] He was the first to describe his triad of medical signs for congenital syphilis: notched incisor teeth, labyrinthine deafness, and interstitial keratitis, which was very useful for providing a firm diagnosis long before Treponema pallidum or the Wassermann test were discovered. By contrast, his insistence that leprosy was caused by eating decaying fish was incorrect.[7]
He was the founder of the Medical Graduates’ College and Polyclinic; and both in his native town of Selby and at Haslemere, Surrey, he started (about 1890) educational museums for popular instruction in natural history.[8] He published several volumes on his subjects and was given an Hon. LL.D degree by both the University of Glasgow and University of Cambridge. He received a knighthood in 1908.
Hutchinson has his name attached to these entities in medicine:
Hutchinson's melanotic freckle (was previously considered a precancerous spot occurring in old age, now known as melanoma in situ, lentigo maligna type)
Hutchinson married Jane Pynsent West in 1856 and they had six sons and four daughters. His son Jonathan (1859–1933) became an ophthalmic surgeon and was elected F.R.C.S. in 1884.[9][10] He founded Haslemere Educational Museum in 1888. The teacher, writer, and naturalist Margaret Hutchinson was his granddaughter.[11][12] Hutchinson died on 23 June 1913, in Haslemere, Surrey.[13]
R. J. Godlee, ‘Hutchinson, Sir Jonathan (1828–1913)’, rev. W. F. Bynum, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 4 September 2007
Geraint DJ (June 2002). "Pioneers of sarcoidosis: Jonathan Hutchinson (1828–1913)". Sarcoidosis, Vasculitis and Diffuse Lung Diseases. 19 (2): 120. PMID12102607.
Herschfeld JJ (April 1988). "Classics in dental history: Sir Jonathan Hutchinson, the universal specialist: his studies of syphilitic changes in the mouth". Bulletin of the History of Dentistry. 36 (1): 34–8. PMID3061507.
King DF (February 1987). "The man behind the eponym. Sir Jonathan Hutchinson. An obstinate genius". The American Journal of Dermatopathology. 9 (1): 74–5. doi:10.1097/00000372-198702000-00013. PMID3551657.
Sharma OP (March 1986). "Vanity Fair, Spy and Jonathan Hutchinson". Sarcoidosis. 3 (1): 75–6. PMID3554427.
Key JD, Mann RJ (1985). "Sir Jonathan Hutchinson, 1828–1913". Medical Heritage. 1 (2): 156. PMID11616022.
James DG (September 1984). "In memoriam Jonathan Hutchinson (1828–1913)". Sarcoidosis. 1 (1): 63–4. PMID6400574.
Cahn LR (December 1979). "Some notes on Sir Jonathan Hutchinson (1828–1913)". The American Journal of Surgical Pathology. 3 (6): 563–6. doi:10.1097/00000478-197912000-00010. PMID393117.
Schoenberg BS, Schoenberg DG (August 1977). "Eponym: the name's the same: the eponyms of Sir Jonathan Hutchinson". Southern Medical Journal. 70 (8): 993–4. doi:10.1097/00007611-197708000-00029. PMID407656.
McKusick VA (June 1971). "The 3d Conference on the clinical delineation of birth defects. Part XII. Skin, hair and nails. Dedication to the memory of Jonathan Hutchinson (1828–1913)". Birth Defects Original Article Series. 7 (8): 1–4. PMID4950927.
McKusick VA (June 1971). "The 3d Conference on the Clinical Delineation of Birth Defects. Part XI. Orofacial Structures. Dedication to the Memory of Jonathan Hutchinson (1828–1913)". Birth Defects Original Article Series. 7 (7): 1–2. PMID4950921.
Florvaag M (June 1956). "The English physician Sir Jonathan Hutchinson; his visit to Molde hospital 1869" [The English physician Sir Jonathan Hutchinson; his visit to Molde Hospital 1869]. Tidsskrift for den Norske Lægeforening (in Norwegian). 76 (11): 389–91. PMID13337828.
McKusick VA (March 1952). "The clinical observations of Jonathan Hutchinson". American Journal of Syphilis, Gonorrhea, and Venereal Diseases. 36 (2): 101–26. PMID14903422.
McCleary JE, Farber EM (February 1952). "Dermatological writings of Sir Jonathan Hutchinson". AMA Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology. 65 (2): 130–6. doi:10.1001/archderm.1952.01530210009002. PMID14884693.
Ravitch MM (1951). "Jonathan Hutchinson and intussusception". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 25 (4): 342–53. PMID14859019.