Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pattison, Granville Sharp
PATTISON, GRANVILLE SHARP (1791–1851), anatomist, born in 1791, youngest son of John Pattison of Kelvin Grove, Glasgow, was admitted a member of the faculty of physicians and surgeons of Glasgow in 1813. He acted in 1818 as assistant to Allan Burns, the lecturer on anatomy, physiology, and surgery at the Andersonian Institute in that city, but he only held the office for a year, and was succeeded by Dr. William Mackenzie [q. v.] He proceeded to Philadelphia in 1818, and there lectured privately on anatomy. In 1820 he was appointed to the chair of anatomy, physiology, and surgery in the university of Maryland in Baltimore, a post he filled for five years and resigned on the ground of ill-health. During this period he edited the second edition of Burns's ‘Observations on the Surgical Anatomy of the Head and Neck,’ which was published in 1823. Pattison returned to England in July 1827. He was appointed, and for a short time occupied the important position of, professor of anatomy at the university of London (now University College), acting at the same time as surgeon to the University Dispensary, which preceded the foundation of the North London Hospital. These posts he was compelled to relinquish in 1831, and in the same year he became professor of anatomy in the Jeafferson Medical College, Philadelphia, where he received the degree of doctor of medicine. He was appointed professor of anatomy in the university of New York on the reorganisation of its medical department in 1840, a post he retained till his death on 12 Nov. 1851. He was author of ‘Experimental Observations on the Operation of Lithotomy,’ Philadelphia, 1820; and of much controversial material of ephemeral interest. He edited in 1820 the ‘American Recorder,’ and the ‘Register and Library of Medical and Chirurgical Science,’ Washington, 1833–6; and was co-editor of the ‘American Medical Library and Intelligencer,’ Philadelphia, 1836. He translated Masse's ‘Anatomical Atlas.’ He left a widow, but no children.
[New York Journal of Medicine, 1852, new ser. viii. 143; Lancet, London, 1830–1, ii. 693, 721, 753, 785; Gent. Mag. 1852, i. 196; additional information kindly contributed by Professor H. E. Clarke of Glasgow.]