Online Encyclopedia
Percivall Pott
Percivall Pott (January 6, 1714 - December 22, 1788) - London surgeon.
He served his apprenticeship with Edward Nourse, assistant surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital, and in 1736 was admitted to the Barbers' Company and licensed to practise. He became assistant surgeon to St Bartholomew's in 1744 and full surgeon from 1749 till 1787.
As the first surgeon of his day in England, excelling even his pupil, John Hunter, on the practical side, Pott introduced various important innovations in procedure, doing much to abolish the extensive use of escharotics and the cautery that was prevalent when he began his career. In 1756, Pott sustained a an ankle fracture after a fall from his horse. This type of injury is described to this day as Pott's fracture. In 1768, Pott published, Some few Remarks upon Fractures and Dislocations. The book was translated into French and Italian and had a far-reaching influence in Britain and France. His name was written in the annals of medicine (Pott's disease). He gave an excellent clinical description in his Remarks on that kind of Palsy of the Lower Limbs. Among his other writings the most noteworthy are A Treatise on Ruptures (1756), and Chirurgical Observations.
In 1775, Pott found an association between exposure to soot and a high incidence of scrotal cancers in chimney sweeps. This was the first occupational link to cancer, and Pott was the first person to demonstrate that a malignancy could be caused by an environmental carcinogen. Pott's early investigations contributed to the science of epidemiology.