The New International Encyclopædia/Wells, Sir Thomas Spencer

WELLS, Sir Thomas Spencer (1818-97). An English surgeon and ovariotomist, born at Saint Albans (Hertfordshire), and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and at Saint Thomas's Hospital, London. In 1841 he was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons, and in that institution subsequently held all the principal offices. After serving in the Naval Hospital at Malta, he studied under Magendie in Paris, and in 1853 established himself as an ophthalmic surgeon in London. He was chosen surgeon at the Samaritan Free Hospital for Women and Children (1854). At the Samaritan Hospital he began the work in abdominal surgery which made his name famous. In 1858 he first performed the discredited operation of ovariotomy. In spite of much opposition, the method was finally accepted by the profession in 1864, and by 1880 Wells had performed his thousandth operation. For his achievements Wells was elected to the King's and Queen's College of Ireland, and to the Irish Royal College of Surgeons, and received many other honors. He was one of the first advocates of cremation in England and was largely instrumental in obtaining countenance for that system. He published: Practical Observations on Gout and Its Complications (1854); Cancer Cures and Cancer Curers (1860); Diseases of the Ovaries: Their Diagnosis and Treatment (1865-72; also Leipzig, 1800-74; and U. S. A.); On Ovarian and Uterine Tumors: Their Diagnosis and Treatment (1882; also Milan, 1882); Diagnosis and Surgical Treatment of Abdominal Tumors (1885; also Paris, 1886).