From country orphan to cosmopolitan physician
John Hull was orphaned at six years old in Poulton, a small Lancashire town. Despite this disadvantage he rose to become a highly reputed doctor in Manchester, one of its most highly qualified doctors at the time. He was Honorary Physician to what is now St Mary’s Hospital for 34 years and was instrumental in setting up what is now the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. Hull also served as President of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and was the inaugural President of the Manchester Medical Society. He was the epitome of what could be achieved if starting with little, with a good mind and very hard work.
Early Life and Background
John Hull was born in Poulton-le-Fylde near Blackpool in 1761, the son of a local apothecary and surgeon of the same name. His mother died when he was four, his father two years later. Raised by family and friends using his father’s bequest, his high abilities became apparent at a local school. At sixteen he was apprenticed to Joseph Lancaster, a surgeon and man-midwife in Blackburn. From there he went to St Thomas’s Hospital in London for further training and lectures. He obtained qualifications in surgery and ‘the physick’ and later wrote his MD thesis on ‘cathartics’ for the University of Leiden in 1792 (before any British medical schools had begun).
Hull went back to practice in Blackburn for a while and in 1791 he married Sarah, the sister of William Winstanley, a physician at the Manchester Infirmary; his frustration at the lack of a lying-in hospital in Blackburn and perhaps the recommendations of his brother-in-law persuaded him to extend his horizons; he moved to Manchester in 1796, where he immediately one of the best-qualified doctors in the burgeoning industrial town.
Key Contributions and Achievements
Hull specialised in ‘man-midwifery’, or obstetrics as it is now known. He became Honorary Physician to the Manchester and Salford Lying-in Hospital (now St Mary’s Hospital) in 1804 and served on the staff until his retirement in his seventies, in 1837. He argued forcefully on the need for Caesarian section in women who could not deliver naturally and was one of its first exponents in Britain. To undertake such surgery, well before the introduction of anaesthesia, hardly bears contemplation. Most mothers died; the first woman to survive was in Lancashire in 1791. The surgical staff of the Manchester Infirmary were thoroughly opposed to the idea, and the resulting arguments were prolonged, heated and public. Nevertheless, Hull and his supporters were ultimately vindicated, and with gradual improvement and anaesthesia the procedure became essential in midwifery.
In 1814 Hull was one of the leading lights in the creation of the Manchester Institution for Curing Diseases of the Eye (now the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital) where he also served as Honorary Physician for several years.
In his spare time (Hull was well-known to rise at 6am every day, to eat mainly bread, milk and an apple for meals, and to spend the mornings riding out to consultations, the afternoons consulting at his house, and the evenings being driven out in his carriage for further consultations) Hull learned French, German and Greek. He was of course already fluent in Latin (The language required for all MD theses submitted to universities at the time). He was also an expert botanist and wrote two important tomes on the subject: The British Flora (1799) and in Elements of Botany (1800). In recognition of his contributions, he was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society.
Impact on Manchester and Beyond
Hull was involved in three Manchester hospitals: in addition to his constant work for St Mary’s Hospital, he was involved in creating both the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital in 1814 and the Lock Hospital in 1819. The latter, though eventually closed in 1974, branched into the care of skin diseases and evolved into what is now the Manchester Dermatology Centre. He created the Manchester Medical Society in 1834, still active today. His generous gift of books to its library on his election became the core of what was to become one of the most impressive medical libraries in the country. His defence of the Caesarian operation was of national importance. Although reputedly a delightful and mild-mannered man, he could be both forceful and cutting in professional argument; a London doctor said of him that he could criticise “with the ability which both his friends and his enemies have well known how to appreciate”.
Connection to the Manchester Lit & Phil
Hull moved from Blackburn to Manchester in 1796 and almost immediately joined the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, quickly becoming an active member. He presented several papers at meetings, including one in 1800 titled “Observations on the Nervous Systems of Different Animals; on Original Defects in the Nervous System of the Human Species and Their Influence on Sensation and Voluntary Motion,” and another on “Phlegmatia Dolens,” a severe condition involving obstructed veins in women following childbirth. He served as co-secretary of the Society from 1798 to 1806 (sharing the role with John Dalton for the last six years) and was elected President in 1809.
Founded in 1781, the Society had, for many years, been the forum for intellectual discussion in Manchester, but scientific and medical issues had dominated the agenda since its creation. Hull and others clearly considered that the medical profession in a town that had enlarged six-fold in population since the creation of the Manchester Lit & Phil, warranted its own specialist society. This led to his creation of the Manchester Medical Society in 1834.
Surprising or Lesser-Known Details
In 1786 Hull delivered quintuplets in Blackburn. An extreme rarity before the modern days of fertility treatment, no such child had ever survived, and none did on this occasion. The grisly display of these babies remains in the Hunterian Museum in London.
In 1822 John Hull’s friend John Windsor, Honorary Surgeon at the Manchester Eye Institution, visited the famous physician Laennec in Paris and brought back with him a new-fangled instrument that Laennec had invented. Laennec was also a flautist and made his own flutes. In the process he noticed that sounds could be heard well through the bore. He modified it to work better in 1816 and called it a stethoscope. Windsor gave one to John Hull, who became the first to use it in Manchester. An example is in the Science Museum.
Legacy and Inspiration
John Hull MD FLS LRCP MRCS LSA rose from orphanhood in the backwoods of Lancashire to become the most prominent, and certainly the best-qualified, physician in the biggest town in England. He was directly involved in three of its hospitals, two of which he helped to create. He was ahead of his time in arguing the importance of Caesarian section for childbirth in England. He spoke five languages, and published articles and books in both medicine and botany. He should be better-known. He retired back to his roots in Poulton-le-Fylde, and the memorial to him in the church of St Chad reads ‘His punctuality, kindness and cheerful confidence, his ready judgement in detecting the causes of disease, and his practical skills in removing them….brought him wealth and honour and enlarged the sphere of his usefulness.’
Nick Jones, member of Manchester Lit & Phil
Main Image Credit:
This file comes from the Wellcome Collection, a website operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom.