Laura Sellers

This week I was asked to introduce the HPS in 20 Objects public lecture on the brain knife. The brain knife we have was used by pathologists to cut clean slices out of brains for teaching or research. A skilled practitioner might be able to get something suitable for microscope viewing but generally it was for bigger sections. The handle and blade indicate it was for long smooth cuts through something pretty soft (ie. doesn’t need much force). In the process of researching the brain knife I was trying to find out a bit more about where it was used. I discovered, rather pleasingly that out lecture was being held on Tuesday 25th October 2016, on the 185th birthday of the having a medical school here in Leeds. The first being on North Street in the Leeds Public Dispensary and Hospital, which provided for the poor or Leeds. This seems like a good opportunity to do a whistle stop tour of medical education in Leeds, especially as Leodis, a digital repository of photos of Leeds, has come up trumps with great pictures.

Leeds was on of the first 10 provincial Medical schools in England. Alongside Manchester, Birmingham and others between 1824 and 1834 it stated t be possible to get a medical education outside London. The Leeds school of medicine was opened in 1831. It operated initially out of the dispensary and offered classes in Physiology, Anatomy, Pathology, Botany, Diseases of women and children, forensic medicine and midwifery.

The school soon outgrew the dispensary and moved to 1 East Parade. Inside they were able to create a lecture theatre and two dissecting rooms in the loft space which were lite by skylights. By 1841 the number of students dissecting was 38, second only to Manchester in size of the provincial schools.

Apparently, the first trial of ether anaesthesia in Leeds took place in the dissecting room in East Parade in the winter of 1846-7 . A student of the time, Claudius Galen Wheelhouse. said that within a few days of the students experimenting with the inhalation of ether themselves patients were being operated on using the new technique.

The school eventually outgrew East Parade and a new building was erected on Park Street between 1864-5. Most teaching took place here but students could also have classes at the West Yorkshire Lunatic Asylum  in Wakefieldunder the superintendent James Crighton Browne. The students did have to travel to London to take their medial exams though.

Park Street ceased to be used as a Medical School in 1894 and came into the possession of the Yorkshire Archeological Society and the Thoresby Society. In 1926 Charles Thackray moved his Medical Instrument Manufacturing firm into the premises. Later their collections would form the basis of the Thackray museum here in Leeds. The building was demolished in 1987 and the new courts were built on the site.

Whilst the Medical School grew so did other types of education in Leeds. In 1874 a textile college was opened on Cookridge Street with 24 students. The site shown here was acquired in 1877 and in 1878 the college became known as the Yorkshire College, housed in the clothworkers buildings on the left of the picture.

The Yorkshire College and the medical school merged in 1884 and an engineering department was added in 1886 creating the basis of our current university. In April 1904 a Royal Charter was signed creating the University of Leeds. But it wasn’t until 1910 that clinical teaching was transferred from Leeds General Infirmary’s control to the University. The Great Hall, seen in the centre of the picture, was opened in October 1894 by the then Duke and Duchess of York for the Yorkshire College.

On the same day The Duke and Duchess opened the Great Hall they opened the Thoresby Place Medical School which still stands at the back of the medical school. This view is of the library. The front entrance is on the right of the building. It was directly across the street from a side entrance into the Leeds General Infirmary which the medical students used all the time. It is possible that our brain knife was also used in this building but we’re not sure.

As part of the university the Algernon Firth  Institute of Pathology, was built as part of the Leeds School of Medicine. The institute opened in 1933 and almost certainly where our brain knife was used.It was designed by local architect, John C. Proctor and is an early example of the use of re-enforced concrete in building. It is still standing but is fairly well hidden behind the Clarendon Wing of the LGI. If you do find it it has some interesting architectural features including fossils in the Portland stone used around the doorways.

And finally we have our modern concrete extravaganza the Worsley building which has been home to the medical school since 1979. The Worsely Medical and Dental Building contained the dental hospital, pre-clinical departments, multi-discipline laboratories and a library when it opened, as as far as I know still does. It was designed to accommodate a student intake of 218 medical and 60 dental a year, although it wasn’t until 1999 that the figure of 218 was actually reached.