Isaac Baker Brown

Isaac Baker Brown (8 June 1812 – 3 February 1873) was a prominent 19th-century English gynaecologist and obstetrical surgeon. He had a reputation as a specialist in the diseases of women and advocated certain surgical procedures, including clitoridectomies, as cures for epilepsy and hysteria. In 1867, his career ended when he was accused of performing these procedures without consent of the patients. He was subsequently expelled from the Obstetrical Society of London.

Biography

Early life Baker Brown was born in 1811 in Colne Engaine, Essex. His parents were farmer Isaac Baker Brown, and Catherine (née Boyer), the daughter of a schoolmaster. He went to school in Halstead, Essex, and became an apprentice to a surgeon called Gibson. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1848. In 1858 he founded the London Surgical Home for Women and worked on advancing surgical procedures. He was elected president of the Medical Society of London in 1865. In On the Curability of Certain Forms of Insanity, Epilepsy, Catalepsy, and Hysteria in Females, he gave a 70 per cent success rate using this treatment. The London Surgical Home was not licensed for this under the Lunacy Act and when the Lunacy Commission began to ask questions, Baker Brown denied it and tried to distance himself from the article. He was also accused of performing clitoridectomies without the consent or knowledge of his patients or their families.

Baker Brown's career did not recover and he died on 3 February 1873 in London, following a year spent as an invalid.