​COLLIGNON, CHARLES, M.D. (1725–1785), anatomist, was of French extraction, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.B. in 1749 and M.D. in 1754. He practised in Cambridge as a physician, and was in 1769 elected professor of anatomy, which office he held till his death on 1 Oct. 1785.

Collignon married a lady of Dutch parentage at Colchester, by whom he had an only daughter, Catherine [q. v.] Cole, who knew him well, says of him: 'He is an ingenious, honest man, and if they had picked the three kingdoms for a proper person to represent an anatomical professor, they could not have pitched upon a more proper one, for he is a perfect skeleton himself, absolutely a walking shadow, nothing but skin and bones; indeed. I never saw so meagre a figure, such as one can conceive a figure to be after the flesh and substance is all dried away and wasted, and nothing left to cover the bones but a shrivelled dry leather; such is the figure of our present professor of anatomy, 19 June 1770' (Cole, MS. Collection, British Museum, xxxiii. 264). He was a fellow of the Royal Society.

Collignon's works, which are mostly in the nature of moral reflections based on a little anatomy and medicine, include: 1. 'Compendium Anatomico-Medicum,' 1756. 2. 'Tyroncinium Anatomicum,' 1763. 3. 'Enquiry into the Structure of the Human Body relative to its supposed Influence on the Morals of Mankind,' 1764; third edition, 1771. 4. 'Medicina Politica; or Reflections on the Art of Physic as inseparably connected with the Prosperity of a State,' 1765. 5. 'Moral and Medical Dialogues,' 1769. These were collected with some' other minor writings at a quarto volume of 'Miscellaneous Works,' published by subscription in 1786.

G. T. B.