Isaac Baker Brown

Isaac Baker Brown (8 June 1812 – 3 February 1873) was a prominent 19th-century English gynaecologist and obstetrical surgeon. He had a reputation as a specialist in the diseases of women and advocated certain surgical procedures, including clitoridectomies, as cures for epilepsy and hysteria. In 1867, his career ended when he was accused of performing these procedures without consent of the patients. He was subsequently expelled from the Obstetrical Society of London.

Early life

Baker Brown was born in 1811 in Colne Engaine, Essex. His parents were farmer Isaac Baker Brown, and Catherine (née Boyer), the daughter of a schoolmaster. He went to school in Halstead, Essex, and became an apprentice to a surgeon called Gibson. He studied at Guy's Hospital, London and specialised in midwifery and diseases of women. He married Anne Rusher Barron on 18 June 1833, in Colchester, Essex. Following Anne's death he married his second wife, Catherine Read, on 21 May 1863.

Career

Baker Brown opened a medical practice in Connaught Square, London in 1834 and soon became known as a specialist in gynaecology. In 1845, he was one of the founders of St Mary's Hospital, London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1848. In 1858 he founded the London Surgical Home for Women and worked on advancing surgical procedures. He began to perform ovariotomies on women, including his own sister. In 1864, he was the first person to describe a surgical treatment for stress incontinence involving a suprapubic cystostomy procedure. He was elected president of the Medical Society of London in 1865. In 1866, Baker Brown described the use of clitoridectomy as a cure for several conditions, including epilepsy, catalepsy and mania, which he attributed to masturbation. In On the Curability of Certain Forms of Insanity, Epilepsy, Catalepsy, and Hysteria in Females, he gave a 70 per cent success rate using this treatment.