Reading across sources

Although I found no direct evidence in William Hey's notebooks to say for certain that he was reading the books he borrowed from the Infirmary Library, I did find further evidence to suggest that he had done so. In one case history from the early nineteenth century Hey recorded an account of a lady with a strangulated hernia who had been admitted to the infirmary and proposed operating on her. The same day he borrowed a book on hernias from the Infirmary Library. The results, unfortunately, were not successful. The patient died, and the Register of Circulation shows that Hey returned the book a few days later.

In some of Hey's earlier medical and surgical case histories he did occasionally  mention reading a book, or an article in a medical journal. Although no borrowers records survive for the Infirmary Library at this time, by comparing Hey's case histories to the manuscript catalogue of the Infirmary Library which dates from 1784 and lists the collection of the library, I was able to suggest the likelihood that Hey had borrowed specific books from the Infirmary Library.