SIR JOHN CHARNLEY

'THE SURGEON BIOLOGIST'

'The individual flair of the surgeon as an artist which Sir John Charnley is an example.'

'I would deplore for example any world opinion which regarded this great man as purely a surgeon engineer he is - like Lister a surgeon biologist - and in years to come on this question of creating the completely sterile operating atmosphere he will go down into the gallery of hero’s with Lister. That I think is very important.

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The Charnley hip joint, the replacement, metal as may be with the plastic socket is something more than the engineers concept because it is not the normal hip joint structurally to look at it contains not only the inert materials of the plastic socket and the thigh bone with its little head it contains the intellect the brains of john Charnley the surgeon biologist.

This must be said before I die – in my 96th year I can say these things and no one is going to contradict me until I am dead!'

(Sir Harry Platt, 1982)