Hilton's Rest and Pain, Guy's Hospital personalities and Guy's South African rugby connection.

Guy's Hospital occupies a unique position in medical history. John Hilton (1805-1879), as anatomist, physiologist, morbid anatomist and surgeon in his classic Rest and Pain, published in 1863 (reissued in 1950), formulated principles for the diagnostic significance of pain and the value of rest in healing. An array of personalities graced Guy's Medical School in that era. The triumvirate of Richard Bright (1789-1858). Thomas Addison (1793-1860) and Thomas Hodgkin (1798-1866) contemporaneously discovered the diseases that bear their names. Sir Astley Cooper, a leading surgeon of his day (1768-1841), performed the first amputation of the hip joint before the era of anaesthesia. John Keats (1795-1821) qualified as a surgeon at Guy's but, realising his unsuitability of temperament, became a leading English poet. This change of direction caused him anguish and suffering, mainly because of the rejection of his poetry; tuberculosis led to his death in Rome, where he is buried. Guy's Medical School also allowed South Africans to enter as rugby players before the 1920s, when they were required to qualify overseas.