Jackson Prize
From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Historical figure.
The Jacksonian Prize of the Royal College of Surgeons was founded in 1800 through a £200 gift. It originated with a surgeon's apprentice who married a wealthy shipbroker's daughter, took her surname, and became Colonel Samuel Jackson. He abandoned surgery for a life of pleasure and social rank in the Tower Hamlets Militia, but later died insolvent. His enduring legacy was the prize he endowed for the College, which preserved his name. Despite its modest value and being open only to Fellows and Members, it has been won by many figures linked to the progress of British surgery.
In the Sherlock Holmes stories
- Dr. James Mortimer was house-surgeon, from 1882 to 1884, at Charing Cross Hospital. Winner of the Jackson Prize for Comparative Pathology, with essay entitled 'Is Disease a Reversion?' Corresponding member of the Swedish Pathological Society. Author of "Some Freaks of Atavism" (Lancet, 1882), "Do We Progress?" (Journal of Psychology, March, 1883). Medical Officer for the parishes of Grimpen, Thorsley, and High Barrow (HOUN 77).
