Charles Brooke

Charles Brooke FRMS FRS (30 June 1804 – 17 May 1879) was an English surgeon and inventor.

Surgical career Brooke, son of the well-known mineralogist, Henry James Brooke, was born 30 June 1804. His early education was carried on at Chiswick, under Dr. Turner. After this he was entered at Rugby School in 1819 and St John's College, Cambridge, where he remained five years. He was twenty-third wrangler and B.A. 1827, B.M. 1828, and M.A. in 1853. During a part of this period he studied medicine, and his professional education was completed at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He passed the Royal College of Surgeons examination on 3 September 1834, and became a fellow of that institution 26 August 1844. He lectured for one or two sessions on surgery at Dermott's School, and afterwards held positions on the surgical staff of the Metropolitan Free Hospital and the Westminster Hospital, which latter appointment he resigned in 1869.

He is known as the inventor of the bead suture, which was a great step in advance in the scientific treatment of deep wounds. On 4 March 1847 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He belonged to the Royal Meteorological Society (president 1865–1866) and the Royal Microscopical Society. He also at various times served on the management of the Royal Institution and on the council of the Royal Botanical Society. In addition to these he was connected with many philanthropic and religious societies, and was a very active member of the Victoria Institute and Christian Medical Association.

Inventions His public papers and lectures generally pertained to the department of physics, mathematical and experimental, and his more special work was the inventing or improving of apparatus and especially of self-recording instruments for scientific use.

Brooke also studied the theory of the microscope, and was the author of some inventions which facilitated the shifting of lenses, and improved the illumination of the bodies observed. He applied his improved methods to the investigation of some of the best known test-objects of the microscope. His name is, however, most popularly known by means of the Elements of Natural Philosophy, originally compiled by Dr. Golding Bird in 1839, who alone brought out the second and third editions. After his death in 1854, Brooke edited a fourth edition, revised and greatly enlarged, followed by a fifth in 1860. In 1867 he entirely rewrote the work for the sixth edition.

Death He died at Weymouth, 17 May 1879, and his widow died at 3 Gordon Square, London, 12 Feb. 1885, aged 86.

Automatic registration of instruments by photography

Between 1846 and 1852 Charles Brooke

Published works Elements of Natural Philosophy, editor of the fourth edition (1854) and fifth edition (1860), rewrote entirely for the sixth edition (1867) The Evidence afforded by the Order and Adaptations in Nature to the Existence of a God. A Christian Evidence lecture, 1872, which was three times printed, A Synopsis of the Principal Formulæ and Results of Pure Mathematics, 1829. Books by Charles Brooke available in the Internet Archive Books by Charles Brooke available in Google Books Papers by Charles Brooke available in Google Scholar