With the welcome news that the NHS pay dispute has now been resolved, today's blog will
give a small insight into the Huguenots influence in the world of medicine.
The London Hospital in part owes its existence to a Huguenot a Dr Andrée, whose family
had originated in Rheims. He was one of a group who came together with a proposal for a new
hospital.
Women all over the world can be grateful to the Chamberlen family inventors of obstetrical
instruments widely known as the forceps. Down the centuries, childbirth has always been a
risky business, and complications such as the baby in the wrong position could endanger
the life of either the baby or mother or possibly both.
The invention of the forceps has undeniably saved many lives and continues to do so to
this day, and it is to William Chamberlen and his family that we should be grateful for this
life-saving invention. The Chamberlen's were Huguenots, who in 1569 fled from Paris to
England following Catherine Medici's ban on Protestant surgeons. William's sons became
members of the Barber Surgeons Company.
As the years passed by, father and both sons all became successful practitioners of obstetrics.
The actual inventor is assumed to be Peter the Elder because although both Peters had trained
in obstetrics, it was Peter the Elder who was appointed surgeon to Queen Henrietta Maria (wife
of Charles I). Having invented this life-saving instrument, the Chamberlen family were keen to
keep their invention secret. The use of forceps was a closely guarded secret passed down the
family for at least 100 years by means of the elaborate concealment of the implement in a
gilded box, followed by the blindfolding of the mother, and forbidding anyone else other than
a Chamberlen to be in attendance.
The original forceps, missing for many years, had been hidden by Peter the they were found
under the floorboards of the attic of their residence in Essex. Despite all this subterfuge models of these forceps had begun to appear in the early 18th century. Hugh Chamberlen was the author of the first proper English textbook on the subject of midwifery in 1673 entitled 'The Accomplished Midwife'.
FURTHER READING
Prioleau William, The Chambelen Family and the introduction of obstetrical instruments. The Huguenot Society Proceedings, Vol XXVII (2002) p. 705-7.
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