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Article: Keats the surgeon. (The Podium).
- Article from:
- American Scholar
- Article date:
- September 22, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Phi Beta Kappa Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Because he lost both his parents by the time he was fifteen, John Keats had to make his own way in the world. Apprenticed to a local surgeon-apothecary, he shelved the medicine jars, made the bandages, rolled the pills, polished the knives and scarifiers, and fed the leeches.
In 1815, just before his twentieth birthday, Keats registered at Guy's Hospital in London for surgical training. He was soon noticed by the great surgeon Astley Cooper, who had him appointed as a "dresser"--a medical student who assisted during operations in the hospital's skylit theatre, a hot, crowded room that echoed with the hubbub of the audience and the screams of the patient. During ...