Edward Lund

There are two surviving manuscripts relating to Lund's professional activities of which MMM/12/2 is particularly significant for its accounts of James Young Simpson's very early use of anaesthesia in childbirth and the early use of anaesthesia by other practitioners in general surgery.

Edward Lund (1823-1898) was born on 23 May 1823 in Peckham, Surrey and was the ninth son of Thomas Lund. He was educated at a preparatory school in Blackheath and King's College School before becoming apprenticed to the surgeon William Parker Hoare (1807-1888) of Faversham, Kent. During his time as an apprentice he gathered a large collection of flora of the neighbourhood, which on his death was left to Leopold Hartley Grindon (1818-1904), a teacher of botany at the Royal Manchester School of Medicine. He then proceeded to Guy's Hospital, London in 1842 to complete his medical training. He qualified in 1847, becoming a LSA and MRCS that year. He remained at Guy's Hospital for a short while, and his surviving manuscripts show him to have spent the latter half of 1847 and the beginning of 1848 touring Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London to learn more from the various medical establishments.

In 1848 Lund came to Manchester and set up his practise as a surgeon in St John Street. In 1850 he was appointed as Anatomical Demonstrator at the Pine Street Medical School and later became Lecturer in Descriptive Anatomy and Dissections. When the Pine Street and Chatham Schools amalgamated, Lund joined the teaching staff of the Manchester Royal School of Medicine. In 1855 he joined the Manchester Royal Infirmary as a Visiting Surgeon, where in 1868 he became a full surgeon, and on his retirement from the Infirmary in 1883 he took the role of Consulting Surgeon.

Lund was one of the active parties in seeking the union of the Medical School and Owens College, greatly raising the prestige of medical education in Manchester. Together with George Southam (1815-1876) he became joint Professor of Surgery in the new Victoria University, and in 1874 he was admitted to the Senate of the University, before becoming the sole Professor of Surgery upon the death of Southam in 1876, and continued to hold this office until 1888.

Lund had a reputation for being a skilled and inventive surgeon. Recognising the importance of Joseph Lister's recent discoveries surrounding antiseptic surgery, Lund was one of the first to introduce the practice into Manchester hospitals, although he did meet with some opposition. He is also known for his invention of a number of surgical instruments, namely the portable craniotome for post-mortem examinations, Lund's corkscrew lever, special hooks for catching the mucous membrane while doing Whitehead's operation for piles, and an apparatus for blowing up the bowel in a case of intussusception.

Lund was active in local and national professional societies and at a local level served as secretary of the Manchester Medical Society from 1850 to 1853, treasurer from 1866 to 1872, and president in the years 1863 and 1881. Additionally in 1881 he was a Member of Council of the Surgical Section of the International Medical Congress as well as President of the Lancashire and Cheshire Branch of the British Medical Association. From 1878 to 1894 he served as a Member of Council of the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1883 was elected a Member of the Court of Examiners, and together with John Wood was appointed Hunterian Professor of Surgery and Pathology in 1884 and delivered three lectures that year on 'Injuries and Diseases of the Head and Neck, the Genito-urinary Organs, and the Rectum'.

In 1849, Lund married Charlotte Webster, the youngest daughter of D H Webster of Kirby, Northants. He had a stroke in 1887 and whilst he recovered he was never fully fit again, and died at his home at Whalley Range, Manchester on 4 February 1898. He was survived by a daughter and three sons. One son, Herbert Lund (1858-1938), was also a surgeon in Manchester.