Introduction
Thomas Michael Greenhow MD MRCSFRCS (5 July 1792 – 25 October 1881) was an English surgeon and epidemiologist.
Career
Thomas Michael Greenhow was the second son of Dr Edward Michael Greenhow, an army surgeon of North Shields, Tynemouth. He was a medical graduate of the University of Edinburgh andbecameM.R.C.S. (London)in 1814,havingbeena surgerystudent atLondon's Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital.
Greenhow spent much of his working life in Newcastle. He and fellow surgeon Sir John Fife are recorded together in 1827 as being Eminent Persons of Newcastle and Gateshead.Greenhow'ssurgical inventions were heralded by London surgeons in the 1830s. Debrettsrecords that GreenhowwasaFellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, having become, in1843, one of the original 300 fellows.
Greenhow worked in allareas of surgery and had a particular interest in obstetrics and gynaecology;in 1845, he controversially published detailed accounts regardinghis views on the gynaecological statusof Harriet Martineau, whowas both his patient andsister-in-law.
Greenhow wasa pioneer in the establishment of the University of Durham and in 1855was a lecturer at the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne's medicalcollege, in connection with Durham University. He and Sir John Fife founded what would become the Newcastle University Medical School. The two men also founded Newcastle's Eye Infirmary. Greenhow worked as the seniorsurgeon at the Newcastle Infirmary, later renamed the Royal Victoria Infirmary, for many years and was instrumental in its expansion in the 1850s. While working there, he trained John Snow. Greenhow and Snow both advocated for the usage of chloroform when performingmajor surgery. Greenhow's son, surgeon HenryMartineau Greenhow, reportedin The Lancet his father's surgical success involving chloroform.
Thomas Greenhow and hisnephew, physician Edward Headlam Greenhow, undertook much research intomedical hygiene and public health, publishing papers throughout the 1850swarning offurther impending cholera pandemics.(Thearchivesof King's College, Londonholdan 1866 letter from E. H. Greenhow concerning the 1849cholerabreakout in Manchester, withwhichboth men were greatly involved.) The Lancetrecordsthat atameeting in1855of the Epidemiological Society of London, Snowrespondedtoapaper beingreadoutby E. HeadlamGreenhowinwhich theresearch of his uncle, Dr ThomasMichael Greenhow, concerning the1831–32cholera epidemic inTynemouth was outlined. On 6 May 1856, Thomas Greenhow delivered a lecture on this topic at his alma mater, St Thomas' Hospital, where Snow was working as an anaesthetist. In October 1856, E.H.Greenhow became Lecturer on Public Health atStThomas'.
Thomas Michael Greenhowretiredto Leeds in 1860, dying there on 25 October 1881 at Newton Hall.
Family
Thomas Greenhow's first wife was Elizabeth Martineau 1794–1850, who succumbed to tuberculosis after producing four children. She was a daughter of Thomas Martineau and Elizabeth Rankin, of the prosperous, socially reformist Martineau family, mainly based in Birmingham. His wife's siblings included the religious philosopher James and the sociologist and political theorist Harriet.
Greenhow's first child and only daughter, Frances, was born in 1821. She married into the Lupton family of Leeds, wealthy wool manufacturers and Unitarians, a branch of English Dissenters. She worked to open up educational opportunities for women, and, more prominently, their access to universities. His first son and second child, Edward Meadows Greenhow, (1822–1840) died at the age of 18.
Greenhow's second son, Henry Martineau Greenhow (1829–1912), followed his father into medicine. He studiedatUniversity College, London, and by1854 wasaMember of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.He joined the Indian Medical Service spending his entire career in British India, and rising to surgeon major.
Greenhow's third and youngest son, Judge William Thomas Greenhow (1831–1921)receivedhis Bachelor of Laws at Somerset House atKing'sCollege, London in 1853.
In 1854 at Leeds Mill Hill Chapel, Greenhow married his second wife, Anne (1812–1905), daughter of William Lupton.