Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bateman, Thomas (1778-1821)
BATEMAN, THOMAS (1778–1821), physician, chiefly distinguished for his knowledge of diseases of the skin, was born at Whitby, Yorkshire, and was the son of a surgeon. He was educated at private schools, apprenticed for three years to an apothecary in Whitby, and in 1797 began his studies in London at the Windmill Street School of Anatomy, founded by William Hunter, where, at that time, Baillie and Cruikshank were the lecturers. At the same time he attended the medical practice of St. George's Hospital. He afterwards studied in Edinburgh, and took the degree of M.D. with an inaugural dissertation ‘De Hæmorrhœa Petechiali’ in 1801. He then returned to London for the purpose of starting in practice, and became a pupil of Dr. Willan at the Public Dispensary, to which institution he was himself, in 1804, elected physician. In the same year he was appointed to the Fever Institution, now called the Fever Hospital. In 1805 he was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians.
Dr. Bateman joined with Dr. Duncan, jun., of Edinburgh, and Dr. Reeve, of Norwich, in establishing the ‘Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal,’ which still continues as the ‘Edinburgh Medical Journal.’ Among other contributions of Dr. Bateman's own were a series of reports on the diseases of London and the state of the weather, continued from 1804 to 1816, which he afterwards collected into a volume, and which form an important memorial for the history of epidemics. His experience at the Fever Hospital supplied the materials for these reports. In his work at the Public Dispensary he soon, like his master, Dr. Willan, began to pay special attention to diseases of the skin. In this subject Willan was a pioneer, and may be regarded as the founder of the modern school, being the first to describe those diseases in a positive scientific manner, without being swayed by theoretical and formulistic conceptions. Bateman followed in the footsteps of Willan; he extended and perfected his natural history method. When Willan retired from practice, and went to Madeira in 1811, Bateman became the principal authority in London on all questions relating to affections of the skin, and soon acquired a large and lucrative practice. The relation of these two physicians is interesting, and such as has been occasionally seen in science and literature when a younger writer has become the expositor and, in a sense, the literary executor of an older. Bateman published in 1813 his ‘Synopsis of Cutaneous Diseases according to the arrangement of Dr. Willan,’ and completed the series of delineations in coloured plates which Willan had commenced. The pupil borrowed from his master his original views and many of his observations. He repaid the debt by establishing his master's fame; for it may safely be said that, without Bateman's exposition, Willan's signal services to the science of medicine would be less thoroughly appreciated than they are. Bateman's synopsis had an extraordinary success; it was translated into the French, German, and Italian languages, and, penetrating as far as St. Petersburg, procured for its author a remarkable compliment from the Emperor of Russia. The czar conveyed a request to Dr. Bateman to send him any other works he might have written, and sent to the London physician in return a ring of the value of one hundred guineas.
About the year 1816 Bateman's health began to give way, and the sight of one eye failed. The malady was aggravated by the administration of mercury in accordance with the practice of the day, and a train of symptoms produced, which he himself thought it right to relate in a paper in the ‘Medico-Chirurgical Transactions,’ ix. 220. He obtained some benefit from a rest of several months, but returned to his duties at the Fever Institution on the occasion of a severe epidemic of fever in London in 1817. In the following year, however, he was compelled by ill-health to resign his appointment at that hospital, and, in 1819, the physicianship to the Public Dispensary. He shortly afterwards retired to Yorkshire, and died in his native town, Whitby, 9 April 1821.
Dr. Bateman was a skilful physician and excellent medical writer, whose works on skin diseases are still important. His writings not only show practical knowledge, but are remarkable for their learning, complete references being given to ancient and modern writers. Besides his larger books, he wrote a number of smaller papers, ‘all the medical articles in Rees's “Cyclopædia” from the letter C onwards, with the exception of that on the “History of Medicine,” being written by him.' His habits of composition show him to have been a diligent and accurate literary workman. As the first librarian of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, he assisted in founding the splendid library of that society, and compiled its first catalogue.
He wrote: 1. ‘Practical Synopsis of Cutaneous Diseases according to the arrangement of Dr. Willan,’ fifth (standard) edition, London, 1819, 8vo; edited by Dr. A. Todd Thompson, London, 1829. 2. ‘Delineations of Cutaneous Diseases’ (a continuation of Willan's work), with 70 plates, London, 1817, 4to; by Dr. Tilbury Fox, with additions, as ‘Atlas of Skin Diseases,’ London, 1877, 4to. 3. ‘A Succinct Account of the Contagious Fever of this country, in 1817 and 1818,’ London, 1818, 8vo. 4. ‘Reports on the Diseases of London,’ London, 1819, 8vo.
[Some Account of the Life and Character of the late Thomas Bateman, M.D., F.L.S. (anonymous, but by Dr. J. Rumsey), London, 1826, 8vo.]J. F. F.