Abernethy, John (1764-1831)

English surgeon. During his service at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London,1787-1827 he gained a wide reputation for his operations for the treatment of aneurysm, which extended the technique of his teacher John Hunter.

Abernethy was born in London and educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School. He was assistant surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital 1787-1815, and full surgeon until 1827. He published many surgical works, in which he established the principle of the constitutional origin of local disease, largely traceable in his view to disorders of the digestive system. His Surgical and Physiological Works was published 1830.