James Syme

James Syme (7 November 1799 to 26 June 1870) was a Scottish pioneering surgeon, born in Edinburgh and educated at the Royal High School and the University of Edinburgh. He began as a demonstrator in the dissecting room of Robert Liston, and in 1823 carried out the first amputation at the hip joint in Scotland. After founding the Brown Square School of Medicine he opened his own surgical hospital, Minto House, where from 1829 to 1833 he developed a method of clinical teaching in which patients were brought from the ward into a lecture room so that students could watch and take notes. In 1833 he became professor of clinical surgery at the University of Edinburgh, and he briefly held the equivalent chair at University College London in 1847 and 1848 before returning to Edinburgh. He was President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1849 and pressed for medical reform, which led to the Medical Act of 1858.