Norman Chevers
{{Short description|English physician and surgeon}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
File:Norman Chevers. Photograph by G. Jerrard, 1881. Wellcome V0026149.jpg
Norman Chevers (1818–1886) was an English physician and surgeon of the Bengal Medical Service. He is known for research on constrictive pericarditis.{{cite book|author=Ralph Shabetai|title=The Pericardium|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NPE-BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA191|date=6 December 2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1-4419-9137-9|page=191}}
Life
He was born at Greenhithe in Kent, the son of the naval surgeon Forbes Macbean Chevers and his wife Anne Talman. He was educated at Haslar, Guy's Hospital, and Glasgow University, where he graduated M.D. in 1839, aged 21.{{cite web|url=http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E001157b.htm|title=Chevers, Norman - Biographical entry - Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Online|accessdate=5 August 2016}}{{cite book|author=C. Mitchell (London)|title=The London Medical Directory: 1845|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCEDdFbKV5AC&pg=PA31|year=1845|publisher=C. Mitchell|page=31}}
After graduation Chevers worked for nine years at Guy's Hospital, researching in physiology, while in private practice in Upper Stamford Street, south London. He joined the Bengal Medical Service in 1848.
Chevers became Principal of Calcutta Medical College in 1862. He retired from medical work in India in 1876, with the rank Deputy Surgeon General. He returned to England, and became involved in the Epidemiological Society, acting as its President.[http://heart.bmj.com/content/26/6/723.full.pdf British Heart Journal, 1964, 26, p. 723]
Views
Chevers took burning feet syndrome to be a form of "malarial neuralgia".{{cite book|author1=G. W. Bruyn|author2=Charles M. Poser|title=The History of Tropical Neurology: Nutritional Disorders|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XdLtiSuxtwcC&pg=PA140|year=2003|publisher=Science History Publications/USA|isbn=978-0-88135-281-8|page=140}} In later life he argued against the germ theory, in particular for enteric fever and cholera.
In his jurisprudence manual, Chevers was an early advocate of the use of photography. He thought it would be particularly useful for investigation of murders in rural areas.{{cite book|author=Norman Chevers|title=A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence for Bengal and the North-Western Provinces|url=https://archive.org/details/manualofmedicalj00chev|year=1856|publisher=F.Carbery, Bengal Military Orphan Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/manualofmedicalj00chev/page/41 41]}}{{cite book|author1=Tony Bennett|author2=Patrick Joyce|title=Material Powers: Cultural Studies, History and the Material Turn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pJGsukZoJ6UC&pg=PT175|date=13 May 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-01515-3|page=175}}
Physiological investigation by Chevers was used to argue against child marriage.{{cite book|author1=K. Moruzi|author2=M. Smith|title=Colonial Girlhood in Literature, Culture and History, 1840-1950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pi5vBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT63|date=25 August 2014|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-137-35635-2|page=63}} He reported as true the origin of sati being the need to prevent wives poisoning husbands, in order to take a new lover.{{cite book|author=Catherine Weinberger-Thomas|title=Ashes of Immortality: Widow-Burning in India|url=https://archive.org/details/ashesofimmortali0000wein|url-access=registration|date=January 1999|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-88568-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ashesofimmortali0000wein/page/149 149]–}} He was also a temperance advocate.{{cite book|author1=Harald Fischer-Tiné|author2=Jana Tschurenev|title=A History of Alcohol and Drugs in Modern South Asia: Intoxicating Affairs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iTzgCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA98|date=3 January 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-91682-6|page=98}}
Works
- A Treatise on Removable and Mitigable Causes of Death (1852){{cite book|author=Norman Chevers|title=A Treatise on Removable and Mitigable Causes of Death, their modes of origin and means of prevention, etc|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XlNZAAAAcAAJ|year=1852|publisher=Author}}
- A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence for Bengal and the North-Western Provinces (1856){{cite book|author=Norman Chevers|title=A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence for Bengal and the North-Western Provinces|url=https://archive.org/details/manualofmedicalj00chev|year=1856|publisher=F.Carbery, Bengal Military Orphan Press}}
- The Sanitary Position and Obligations of the Inhabitants of Calcutta (1863), lecture to the Bethune Society{{cite book|author=Norman Chevers|title=The Sanitary Position and Obligations of the Inhabitants of Calcutta. A Lecture Delivered Before the Bethune Society, Etc|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O4FaAAAAcAAJ|year=1863|publisher=R. C. Lepage & Company}}
- A Commentary on the Diseases of India (1886){{cite book|author=Norman Chevers|title=A Commentary on the Diseases of India|url=https://archive.org/details/commentaryondise00chev|year=1886|publisher=J. & A. Churchill}}
Notes
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Category:19th-century English medical doctors
Category:English medical writers