Watson Cheyne

Cheyne became the house surgeon to Joseph Lister, the British founder of antiseptic medicine, in 1876. Bacteriology had been much researched in France and Germany in the 1870s and 80s, but little work was done in the field in Britain. Lister was one of the few pioneers of its study in Britain. In 1877, the two took positions at King's College Hospital, where Cheyne served as an assistant surgeon, and later as a surgeon from 1880 to 1917 and also as a professor of surgery from 1891 to 1917. He was a devoted follower of Lister and his antiseptic surgical methods. Cheyne was greatly inspired by the work of German bacteriologist Robert Koch, and translated his work Untersuchungen über die Aetiologie der Wundinfenktionskrankheiten (1878) for the New Sydenham Society in 1880, which greatly enhanced the acceptance of bacteriology in Britain.[3] He had a work published in 1882, Antiseptic Surgery: Its Principles, Practice, History and Results, and later in 1925 a book, Lister and His Achievement. The work he did in his early career on bacteria and preventative medicine was highly influenced by Koch, and in Spring 1886, Cheyne visited Koch's laboratory in Berlin and studied his methods.[5] He undertook trials on tuberculin and reported his findings to the RMCS in April 1891. He found that giving repeated doses improved the condition of patients, but rarely acted as a cure. His paper was recognized as the first important contribution to the topic in France.[6] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1894.

Cheyne served during the Boer War as a consulting surgeon for the British military in South Africa from 1900 to 1901. In a despatch dated 31 March 1900, the Commander-in-Chief in South Africa, Lord Roberts, described how Cheyne had "rendered invaluable service by ... advice and assistance to the Medical Officers" and "been unwearying in ... work among the wounded and sick".[7] In 1910 he was made Honorary Surgeon-in-Ordinary to King George V. With the outbreak of World War I, he became a consulting surgeon to the Royal Navy in 1914, and in 1915 was for a short time temporary Surgeon General, RN. He was later made Surgeon Rear-Admiral and KCMG.[3] From 1914 to 1916, he served as President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and in 1924 he was awarded the inaugural Lister Medal for his contributions to surgical science.[3] The following year, he delivered the first Lister Memorial Lecture.[8] He was made a baronet in 1908.

In 1917, he was elected a Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities[9] and for the Combined Scottish Universities in 1918, holding the seat until he stepped down at the 1922 general election.[10]