title: William James West (1794-1848): abdominal surgeon and distraught father.
abstract: William West was an early-nineteenth-century successful small-town surgeon-apothecary who took a major role in the local movement for medical reform. He published the first series of ovariotomies in England in 1837. His son suffered from a type of infantile spasm which West described in the Lancet in 1841, and which is now known as West's syndrome.
authors.affiliation: Docjford@aol.com
authors.forename: John M T
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ford
mesh_terms: D004739:England; D005260:Female; D013502:General Surgery / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010048:Ovarian Cysts / Q000266:history / Q000601:surgery; D013036:Spasms, Infantile / Q000266:history*