History
It was founded in 1836 as an anatomy school by Erasmus Wilson, Marshall Hall, John Dalrymple, and others, and named after the 17th-century physician Thomas Sydenham (R. M. Hadley, ‘The Life and Works of Sir William James Erasmus Wilson, 1809–84,’ Medical History, vol. 3, July 1959)
Wilson had been assistant (supervising student dissections) to Richard and Jones Quain at University College London prior to the opening of University College Hospital; when Jones Quain resigned in 1836, Wilson decided to set up an independent anatomy school of the kind which was then flourishing (R. M. Hadley, ‘The Life and Works of Sir William James Erasmus Wilson, 1809–84,’ Medical History, vol. 3, July 1959)
It opened on 1 October 1836, but was supposedly very short-lived (R. M. Hadley, ‘The Life and Works of Sir William James Erasmus Wilson, 1809–84,’ Medical History, vol. 3, July 1959)
However, it survived until at least 1838, when Rutherford Alcock was appointed Lecturer in Surgery there (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography); an insurance policy of 19 March 1839 taken out in his name also shows the College still at the same address (Sun Fire Office MS 11936/558/1298375, Guildhall Library)
In 1841 Alcock published a series of his lectures on amputation, given at the School, in The Lancet
It no longer exists
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What was reforming about it?
It was one of many anatomy schools set up after the Anatomy Act of 1832, which saw a move away from dissection as a punishment for criminals and towards providing for the needs of medical science by licensing dissection for students
Where in Bloomsbury
It was at 22 Sussex Street from its foundation in 1836 until at least 1838
Website of current institution
It no longer exists
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Books about it
None found
Archives
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