Gamgee Tissue

{{Short description|Surgical dressing}} [[File:Blue plaque Sampson Gamgee.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Plaque in Birmingham in honor of Sampson Gamgee.<ref name="Letter 257"/>]]

'''Gamgee Tissue''' is a surgical dressing invented by Joseph Sampson Gamgee, a doctor in Birmingham, England, in 1880.<ref name="Gamgee 1880">{{Cite journal |last=Gamgee |first=Sampson |date=1880-01-24 |title=ABSORBENT AND MEDICATED SURGICAL DRESSINGS. |url=https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(02)36703-5/fulltext |journal=The Lancet |language=English |volume=115 |issue=2943 |pages=127–128 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(02)36703-5 |issn=0140-6736}}</ref><ref name="Gamgee 1880 letter">{{cite journal |last=Gamgee |first=J. Sampson |title=Absorbent and medicated surgical dressings (letter) |journal=The Lancet |date=21 February 1880 |url=https://scholar.archive.org/work/mij7pye4fvex3n254bsd4ywzsq/access/ia_file/crossref-pre-1909-scholarly-works/10.1016%252Fs0140-6736%252802%252936565-6.zip/10.1016%252Fs0140-6736%252802%252936794-1.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Kapadia 2002">{{cite journal |last=Kapadia |first=H M |title=Sampson Gamgee: a great Birmingham surgeon |journal=JRSM |volume=95 |issue=2 |date=1 February 2002 |pmid=11823557 |pmc=1279323 |doi=10.1258/jrsm.95.2.96 |pages=96–100}}</ref>

== Surgical dressing ==

Gamgee Tissue has a thick layer of absorbent cotton wool between two layers of absorbent gauze.<ref name="Gamgee 1880"/> It represents the first use of cotton wool in a medical context, and was a major advancement in the prevention of infection of surgical wounds. It is still the basis for many modern surgical dressings. The name has been a trademark of Robinson Healthcare (formerlyl Robinson and Sons Ltd of Chesterfield),<ref>{{cite web |title=Robinson and Sons Ltd of Chesterfield, textile and packaging manufacturers |url=https://calmview.derbyshire.gov.uk/calmview/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=D5395%2F2%2F4%2F3 |publisher=Derbyshire Record Office |access-date=21 August 2024 |ref=D5395}}</ref> based in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, since 1911.

== Tolkien ==

In Birmingham, "Gamgee" became the colloquial name for cotton wool, which led to the surname of Gaffer Gamgee and his son Sam in J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings''. In a 1954 letter to the author Naomi Mitchison, who was checking the text of the novel for Tolkien, he addresses a question she had about the name:<ref name="Letter 257">{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=Tolkien's letter 257 to Christopher Bretherton, 16 July 1964}}</ref>

{{Blockquote |text=Yes, ''Sam Gamgee'' is in a sense a relation of ''Dr. Gamgee'', in that his name would not have taken that form, if I had not heard of 'Gamgee tissue'; there was I believe a Dr. Gamgee (no doubt of the kin) in Birmingham when I was a child. The name was any way always familiar to me. Gaffer Gamgee arose first: he was a legendary character to my children (based on a real-life gaffer, not of that name). But, as you will find explained, in this tale the name is a 'translation' of the real Hobbit name, derived from a village (devoted to rope-making) anglicized as Gamwich (pron. Gammidge), near Tighfield (see vol. II p. 217). Since Sam was close friends of the family of Cotton (another village-name), I was led astray into the Hobbit-like joke of spelling Gamwichy [as] Gamgee, though I do not think that in actual Hobbit-dialect the joke really arose. |author=J.R.R. Tolkien<ref name="Letter 257"/> }}

== References ==

== Sources ==

* {{ME-ref|Letters}}

Category:Medical dressings