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 only an assistant surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Paget was appointed surgeon-extraordinary to the queen. He attended Queen Alexandra, when princess of Wales, during a long surgical illness, and was made surgeon to King Edward VII, when prince of Wales; from 1867 to 1877 he held the post of serjeant-surgeon-extraordinary, and in 1877 he became Serjeant-surgeon to Queen Victoria on the death of Sir William Fergusson [q. v.] He was created a baronet in August 1871.

Paget was president of the three chief medical societies in London; he filled the chair of the Clinical Society in 1869, of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1875, and of the Pathological Society of London in 1887. He was appointed a member of the senate of the university of London in 1860, and on the death of Sir George Jessel [q. v.] in 1883 Paget became vice-chancellor of the university, a post he retained until 1895. He was chosen president of the International Congress of Medicine at the meeting held in London in 1881. He was elected F.R.S. in 1851, and among many other distinctions he held the honorary degrees of D.C.L. (Oxford), LL.D. (Cambridge), F.R.C.S. (Edinburgh and Ireland), and M.D. (Dublin, Bonn, and Würzburg).

Sir James Paget died at his house, 5 Park Square West, Regent's Park, on 30 Dec. 1899, and was buried at Finchley cemetery, after a funeral service in Westminster Abbey. There is an excellent likeness of Paget in the great hall at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. It is a three-quarter-length in oils by (Sir) J. E. Millais, R.A., painted by subscription in 1873. A bust, by Sir J. Edgar Boehm, bart., R.A., stands in the Royal College of Surgeons of England; and there is a replica in the museum of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, dated 1887.

He married, in 1844, Lydia, daughter of the Rev. Henry North, domestic chaplain to the Duke of Kent, and by her had four sons and two daughters, the second son becoming successively dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and bishop of Oxford, and the third son the vicar of St. Pancras, London. Lady Paget died in 1895.

Paget was a surgeon who advanced his art by showing how pathology might be applied successfully to elucidate clinical problems, when as yet there was no science of bacteriology. He may therefore be fairly considered as one of the links connecting Hunterian surgery with the developments which have taken place during the last quarter of a century, owing to a recognition of the part played by micro-organisms in the production of disease. The position which Paget occupied as a teacher in a large medical school, his persuasive eloquence, and the classical English of his writings, gave him great authority among his contemporaries, and enabled him to exercise a much wider influence than would have been expected from his modest demeanour and somewhat retiring disposition. He was facile princeps as a teacher, not by reason of his originality, but because he was able to grasp the principle and clothe it briefly and clearly in exquisite language. Scrupulously honest and fair-minded he acquired one of the chief surgical practices in London. During the busiest period of his life he was invariably punctual, and was never outwardly in a hurry. He had strong religious convictions, which appear in many passages of his writings, and he was always careful in the religious observances of the church of England.

Paget's works are : 1. 'A Descriptive Catalogue of the Pathological Specimens contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England,' 4to (vol. i. 1846, vol. ii. 1847, vol. iii. 1848, vols. iv. and v. 1849). A second edition of the 'Catalogue' was published between 1882 and 1885, edited by Sir James Paget, with the assistance of J. F. Goodhart, M.D., and A. H. G. Doran, F.R.C.S. 2. 'A Descriptive Catalogue of the Anatomical Museum of St. Bartholomew's Hospital;' new edit. vol. i. 1847, vol. ii. 1852. These two catalogues laid the foundation of Paget's reputation. They made him a pathologist, trained him to be an accurate observer, and taught him to write terse English. 3. 'Lectures on Surgical Pathology,' London, 1853, 2 vols. 8vo; revised and edited by (Sir) William Turner, London, 1863, 8vo; 3rd edit, 1870; 4th edit. 1876. These volumes contain, with omissions and additions, the six courses of lectures (1847-52) delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England under the Arris and Gale bequests. They were the direct outcome of Paget's work in the Hunterian museum, and their publication gave a great impulse to the study of pathology, which had been flagging for some time before their appearance. 4. 'Clinical Lectures and Essays,' ed. Howard Marsh, London, 1875, 8vo; translated into French, Paris, 1877, 8vo. 5. 'Studies of Old Case Books,' London, 1891, 8vo. Paget also communicated many papers to the various medical societies and journals. He wrote the lives of eminent surgeons and physicians in the biographical division of Knight's 'Penny Cyclopædia '(London, 1833-44); he assisted