The Burrell Baronets of Knepp

After a career in naval medicine, Thomas made a considerable amount of money in midwifery. The phenomenon of Denman's spontaneous evolution, by which a spontaneous impaction of the shoulder of a foetus resolves a difficult transverse delivery during childbirth, is named after him. He used his authority to support inducing premature labour in cases of narrow pelvis and other conditions in England (where the mother's life is imperiled by delivery at the full time).

Denman was educated at the Bakewell grammar school. He came to London in 1753, and began to study medicine at St. George's Hospital. He entered the medical service of the Royal Navy as a surgeon's mate, and in 1757 became a surgeon. Attached, till 1763, to the ship HMS Edgar, when, on the conclusion of peace, he left the service. He then continued his medical studies, and attended the lectures on midwifery of Dr. William Smellie, one of the best observers and most original writers on this field of medical study, and to whose instruction the future distinction of Denman was in part due. He graduated from medical training at Aberdeen 13 July 1764, and began practice as a physician at Winchester. He got so little to do that he returned to London and tried to re-enter the navy, but failed to get an appointment. He obtained, however, the post of surgeon to a royal yacht, the duties of which did not often take him away from London, while the retainer of £70 a year was an important addition to his income. He lectured on midwifery, and continued to do so for fifteen years. In 1709 he was elected physician accoucheur to the Middlesex Hospital, and held the post till his large practice forced him to give it up in 1783. In that year he was admitted a licentiate in mid-wifery of the College of Physicians.

In 1791, having accumulated a considerable fortune, he bought a country house at Feltham in Middlesex. He never gave up practice altogether, but limited it to consultations.

He was the first physician whose authority made the practice general in England of inducing premature labour in cases of narrow pelvis and other conditions, in which the mother's life is imperilled by the attempt to deliver at the full time.

Major publications:

A Letter to Dr. Richard Huck on the Construction and Method of using Vapour Baths, London, 1768.
Essays on the Puerperal Fever and on Puerperal Convulsions,' 1768
An Introduction to the Practice of Midwifery, 1762 which reached a fifth edition in 1805.
Aphorisms on the Application and Use of the Forceps and Vectis on Preternatural Labours, on Labours attended with Hemorrhage and with Convulsions, 1783. It has had seven English and three American editions, and was translated into French.
On Uterine Hemorrhages depending on Pregnancy and Parturition, 1786
On Preternatural Labours, 1786
On Natural Labours ; 1786
A Collection of Engravings to illustrate the Generation and Parturition of Animals and of the Human Species.' 1787
On the Snuffles in Infants in the Medical Journal, 1790. This is the first accurate description of the nasal and laryngeal catarrh of congenital infantile syphilis.
Observations on Rupture of the Uterus,
On the Snuffles in Infants
On Mania Lactea, 1810
Plates of Polypi of the Uterus, 1800
Observations on the Cure of Cancers, 1810.