of Woodcote, Shropshire, but died without issue.
Cheselden will always be regarded as beyond dispute one of the greatest of British surgeons. He was one of the most brilliant operators whose achievements are on record. On one occasion, to the astonishment of a French surgeon, he performed his celebrated operation in fifty-four seconds, and according to Dr. James Douglas this was nothing unusual. Modern surgery has hardly surpassed this. None the less was he a sound scientific surgeon, and, what is rarer, a man of real inventive genius. He is said to have had a taste for literature and pretensions to critical judgment, which on one occasion misled him (in the presence of Pope himself) into denying that the fourth book of the ‘Dunciad’ could be by the author of the first three. His true bent was evidently mechanical, and it is stated, on the authority of Faulkner's ‘History of Fulham,’ that Cheselden drew the plans for the old Putney bridge. He was also a keen patron of athletic sports, especially boxing. His disposition was gay and genial. He was fond of society and evidently popular. To his patients he was kind and tender-hearted. His portrait, above mentioned, was engraved in mezzotint by Faber.
He wrote: 1. ‘Syllabus sive Index Humani corporis partium anatomicus. In usum Theatri Anatomici Willhelmi Cheselden chirurgi. Autoris impensis,’ London, 1711, 4to. 2. ‘The Anatomy of the Human Body,’ 8vo, 1st ed. London, 1713; 13th ed. London, 1792. 3. ‘Treatise on the High Operation for the stone,’ London, 1723, 8vo. 4. ‘Osteographia, or the Anatomy of the Bones,’ London, 1733, fol.
[Mém. Acad. Royale de Chirurgie, vii. 168, Paris, 1757, 8vo (information from family); Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iv. 613, viii. 414, &c.; Biog. Brit. (Kippis), iii. 491; Archives of St. Thomas's Hospital; Richardson's Asclepiad, iii. 40, 1886.]
CHESHAM, FRANCIS (1749–1806), was an engraver of merit at the end of the eighteenth century. In 1777 he exhibited at the Royal Incorporated Society of Artists in Piccadilly an engraving of ‘The Death of Richard III,’ after Barralet, and in the following year ‘The Death of William Rufus.’ He was then residing in Broad Street, Golden Square. In 1780 he exhibited with the Society of Artists at Spring Gardens, ‘Inside of the Chapter House at Margam,’ and ‘View of the Abbey Church at Llanthony.’ In 1779–80 he engraved several views of various places in the United Kingdom, after Paul Sandby, for Rooker's ‘Copper Plate Magazine.’ In 1788 the Boydells published two engravings by Chesham, after G. Robertson, ‘A View of the Iron Bridge in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire,’ and ‘A View of the Mouth of a Coal Pit near Broseley in Shropshire;’ these two plates are very well engraved in the style and method brought into fashion by Vivares and his school. Chesham also engraved after his own design a large plate of ‘Moses striking the Rock;’ after Cipriani, he engraved an allegorical figure of ‘Britannia;’ and after Robert Dodd, ‘The Naval Victory gained by Admiral Parker in 1781.’ He died in London in 1806.
[Huber et Roost's Manuel des Curieux et des Amateurs de l'Art, ix. 360; Leblanc's Manuel de l'Amateur d'Estampes; Müller's Künstler-Lexikon; Catalogues of the Exhibitions of the Society of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880.]
CHESHIRE, JOHN, M.B. (1695–1762), physician, is stated to have been educated at Oxford, although he does not seem to have graduated there. He practised medicine in Leicester and the surrounding district, but never entered the London College of Physicians. He attained local celebrity and wrote two medical books: ‘A Treatise upon the Rheumatism,’ first published at Leicester in 1723, and afterwards in an enlarged edition, London, 1735; and ‘The Gouty Man's Companion,’ Nottingham, 1747. A case related (p. 14, ed. 1728; p. 26, ed. 1735) shows that Cheshire did not clearly distinguish between gout and chronic rheumatism. Of acute rheumatism his account shows little clinical knowledge, and is mixed up with trivial passages from other authors and much self-praise. For chronic rheumatism he recommends the waters of Kedlestone (p. 148), and for acute rheumatism advises cold baths and sweating between blankets (p. 75). ‘The Gouty Man's Companion’ is more interesting, but contains no important observations. Cheshire advises temperance as a preventive, draws up a diet scale, recommends tea in the afternoon, calomel and emetics during the attack, mercury in the intervals. He had observed that sciatic pain was sometimes a part of a general gouty condition, and this is almost the only weighty remark in all his pages. Of his personal history and character his medical writings give some glimpses. They show that he himself suffered from gout, that he had a high opinion of his own merits, and that he had been patronised by William, the third lord Craven. Craven was one of the followers of Pulteney, and in a servile dedication Cheshire goes out of his way to join in the
