Joseph T Clover

Welcome to the Joseph Clover website

Joseph Clover is a very important figure in the history of anaesthesia but there has never been a book about his life. This website was developed while researching a potential biography.
The biography was finally completed in 2021. The Chloroformist, was published by Melbourne University Press and can be ordered through their website or any good bookshop.
The basic facts about his life can be found on here - but the man himself - who he was, who he loved, what he believed in - he can be found in the book.

This website is dedicated to the life of Joseph Clover (1825-1882), one of the foremost anaesthetists in Victorian England and a major influence in the speciality of anaesthesia. He lived through an extraordinary period in history. The Industrial Revolution was at its peak - electricity, railways, water closets, steam engines - a host of new inventions were transforming life in Victorian England And paralleling these developments were two of the greatest changes in the history of medicine - general anaesthesia and aseptic surgery. Clover was at the centre of all of this. He qualified as a surgeon just as anaesthesia was discovered, changing to full time anaesthesia a few years later. Joseph Lister, the father of antiseptic surgery, was a friend and fellow student. During their careers, surgery changed completely, new techniques were developed and new equipment was required - both for surgery and anaesthesia. Inventive and insightful, Joseph Clover attended many meetings, contributed to discussions, sat on committees, designed equipment, improved techniques and cared for patients.Outside of work, he mixed in high society, travelled on the continent, married an artist and maintained a busy household supporting his extended family. Brought up in the Swedenborgian religion, he and his family also had an important part to play in this church.

The study of Clover's papers therefore provides important insight into all the changes occurring in Victorian England - in medicine, surgery and society in general.

This work has now culminated in a biography (see below) which will be released in August 2021

The Project
This casebook was discovered, pressed open in a picture frame, at the Geoffrey Kaye Museum of Anaesthetic History. The inside cover reads
"One of two books presented to the Dept.of Anaesthesia, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, Shelf III No. 190 by Miss Mary Clover, daughter to Thomas Clover, This one is handed on to the Australian Society of Anaesthetists per Geoffrey Kaye in administration of the museum. R.R.Macintosh. Sept'49"
A quest to discover the provenance of this book has led to a study of all the papers of Joseph Thomas Clover. These papers are scattered around the world and, with the help of a number of archivists and librarians, most have been located. There are still some personal diaries to be located and the second of these casebooks has yet to be identified.