David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

“ But instead of a physician, a royal letter arrived, informing the Czar that a native Russian, Dr. Elmston, had studied medicine in England, and had gone home with all necessary qualifications, and that the King could not spare Dr. Chamberlan. The Doctor devoted himself much to midwifery; and ignoring the pockets of his medical brethren, he had the audacity to propose that the King should found a company of female practitioners in that department. ”

“ The grandson did no such thing, except that he persevered in the use of what was his grandfather’s invention, and translated Mauriceau’s treatise, which had followed in the same line, published in 1668. Dr. Peter Chamberlan’s invention — an instrument so long kept secret by the inventor and his relatives, but benevolently used by him in his practice — “has probably saved more lives than any mechanical invention ever made.” ”

“ Hugh Chamberlen, M.D., was a son of the Doctor just memorialized, and grandson of Sir Hugh Middleton, after whom he was named. In 1664 he signed himself Hugh Chamberlen, thus leaving out the a (a relic of his French origin) from the last syllable of his name. He seems never to have applied for admission to the College of Physicians, resenting perhaps their treatment of his father. Materials for a memoir are therefore wanting. He inherited a fine medical practice which descended to his own son and namesake in beautiful preservation. His wife was Dorothy, daughter of John Brett, Esq., of Kent. ”