David Berry Hart

David Berry Hart was born in Edinburgh on 12 October 1851.{{cite journal|last1=Powell|first1=John L.|title=Powell's Pearls: David Berry Hart, MD (1851–1920)|journal=Journal of Pelvic Medicine and Surgery|volume=15|issue=1|year=2009|pages=33–34|issn=1542-5983|doi=10.1097/SPV.0b013e3181813484}}

He graduated M.B., C.M. from the University of Edinburgh in 1877. Specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology, he continued his studies and obtained his doctorate MD in 1880, with a gold medal and the Syme Surgical Fellowship on "The Structural Anatomy of the female pelvic floor".{{Cite web|last=Hart |first=David Berry |date=1880 |title=Structural anatomy of the female pelvic floor in its physiological, pathological & practical aspects |url=https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/34637 |language=en}}

He was Secretary of the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society{{cite web

| last = Papers held at Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

| title = 1840–1938: minutes of Edinburgh Obstetrical Society

| url= http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=O31772

| access-date = 2009-05-04}} between 1879 and 1883 and became President in 1890. He was also Librarian to the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. In 1881 he was elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh.{{Cite book|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ww4e59xv|title= A Record of the Edinburgh Harveian Society|last=Watson Wemyss|first=Herbert Lindesay|publisher=T&A Constable, Edinburgh|year=1933|language=en}}{{Cite book|title=Minute Books of the Harveian Society|url=http://archives.rcpe.ac.uk/calmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=DEP%2fHAR%2f1%2f1%2f1&pos=17|location= Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh}} In 1888 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Andrew Douglas Maclagan, Sir Alexander Russell Simpson, Sir William Turner, and Sir German Sims Woodhead.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|access-date=6 October 2016|archive-date=24 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|url-status=dead}}

Dr Hart lived in an exceptionally fine Georgian townhouse designed by Robert Adam at 29 Charlotte Square in Edinburgh's First New Town.Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directories 1889 onwards

He was an examiner in midwifery in the universities of Edinburgh, Oxford, Birmingham and Liverpool.

He was devoted to Liberalism and the United Free Church of Scotland.

In later life he lived at 5 Randolph Cliff on the edge of the Moray Estate in Edinburgh's affluent West End.Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1911–12

He died in Edinburgh on 10 June 1920.

His maternal grandfather, David Berry, had been a builder in Edinburgh.

His wife was Jessie Smith Welsh Berry, a first cousin, and they had two daughters and two sons.

A granddaughter was Marian Lines, a writer and actress, and his grandson David Berry-Hart, painter and sculptor.

A great-grandchild is Tess Berry-Hart, playwright and novelist.

Professor Hart wrote nine books and more than 70 papers. Among these were "Manual of Gynaecology", "Guide to Midwifery" and "Some Phases of Evolution". He contributed an article on "Hermaphrodism in Man" for "Encyclopaedia Medica".

Regarded by others as a tour de force of dubious utility, he drew on Mendelian principles with singular vigour. The sides of the vulval vestibule are visible as Hart’s line{{Cite web |url=http://hymen-virgin-membrane.com/diseases_of_the_hymen_page_2.html |title=Hart's line of D. Berry Hart, A. H. Barbour: Manual of Gynecology. Edinburgh 1882; "the hymen separates the external genitals from the internal genitals" |access-date=14 March 2016 |archive-date=14 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314003554/http://hymen-virgin-membrane.com/diseases_of_the_hymen_page_2.html |url-status=dead }} on the inside of the inner lips. Hart's line is the outer edge of the area and marks the change from vulvar skin to the smoother transitional skin of the vulva.

• Honorary Fellow of the American Gynaecological Societyhttp://www.agosonline.org/history/index.asp {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090502005923/http://www.agosonline.org/history/index.asp |date=2 May 2009 }} The American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society (AGOS) was formed through the union of the American Gynecological Society and the American Association Obstetricians and Gynecologists
• Honorary Fellow of the Berlin Obstetrical Society German. ″Gesellschaft für Geburtshilfe und Gynäkologie in Berlin (GGG)″ [http://www.ggg-b.de/index.php?lang=de&site=ehrenmitglieder GGG – Honorary Fellows]
• Corresponding Fellow of the Leipzig Obstetrical Society, German. ″Gesellschaft für Geburtshilfe zu Leipzig″

• Manual of Gynaecology (2 volumes), co-written with Alexander Hugh Freeland Barbour (1882 + 1891){{cite journal |title=Alexander Hugh Freeland Barbour, M.A., M.D., B.Sc., LL.D., F.R.C.P.E., (1856–1927) |volume=47 |year=1928 |pages=369–370 |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh|doi=10.1017/S037016460002592X |last1=j. h. f |doi-access=free }}
• Atlas of the Female Pelvic Anatomy (1884)
• Phases of Evolution and Heredity (1910)
• Guide to Midwifery (1912)

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• {{Internet Archive author |sname=David Berry Hart |sopt=t}}

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Category:Scottish surgeons

Category:Scottish writers

Category:1851 births

Category:1920 deaths

Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Category:Members of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh