Benjamin Ward Richardson
Encyclopedia
Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson (October 1828 – November 21, 1896) was an eminent British
physician
, anaesthetist, physiologist, sanitarian, and a prolific writer on medical history. He was the recipient of the Fothergill
gold medal, awarded by the Medical Society of London in 1854 and of the Astley Cooper
triennial prize for an essay in physiology
.
He was a close personal friend, and professional colleague, of John Snow. On Snow's sudden death he took over the final editing of Snow's draft On Chloroform and Other Anaesthetics and supervised its publication in 1858. Ward Richardson remained a committed exponent of Snow's radical views on the microbial cause of infectious disease for the rest of his life. He continued, and extended, Snow's work on inhalation anaesthesia and brought into clinical use, no less than fourteen anesthetics, of which methylene bichloride is the best known, and he invented the first double-valved mouthpiece for use in the administration of chloroform
. He also made known the peculiar properties of amyl nitrite
, a drug which was largely used in the treatment of angina pectoris, and he introduced the bromide
s of quinine
, iron
and strychnia, ozonized ether, styptic and iodized colloid, peroxide of hydrogen
, and ethylate of soda, substances which were soon largely used by the medical profession. In 1893, he was knighted in recognition of his eminent services to humanitarian causes.
in Leicestershire
, the only son of Benjamin Richardson and Mary Ward. He was educated by the Rev. W. Young Nutt at the Barrow Hill school in the same county. Being destined by the deathbed wish of his mother for the medical profession, his studies were always directed to that end, and he was apprenticed early to Henry Hudson, the surgeon
at Somerby.
He entered Anderson's University (now University of Strathclyde
), in 1847, but a severe attack of famine fever (either typhus
or relapsing fever) that he caught while he was a pupil at St. Andrews Lying-in Hospital (now Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital
), interrupted his studies, and led him to become an assistant, first to Thomas Browne of Saffron Walden
in Essex
, and afterwards to Edward Dudley Hudson at Littlethorpe
, Cosby
, near Leicester
. Hudson was the elder brother of his former master.
In 1854, he was admitted M.A. and M.D. of St. Andrews
, where he afterwards became a member of the university court, an assessor of the general council, and in 1877, an honorary LL.D.
, and librarian of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
(1828–1845). Richardson lived at Mortlake
, and at about this time, became a member of "Our Club", where he met Douglas Jerrold, Thackeray
, Hepworth Dixon, Mark Lemon
, John Doran
, and George Cruikshank
, of whose will he became an executor
.
In 1850, Richardson was admitted as a licentiate to the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
. He became a faculty lecturer in 1877, and was elected a Fellow on June 3, 1878.
Richardson was a founder, and for thirty-five times in succession the President of the St. Andrews Medical Graduates' Association. He was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1856, and was elected a Fellow in 1865, serving the office of materia medica
lecturer in 1866. In 1867, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and delivered the Croonian lecture in 1873 on "The Muscular Irritability after Systemic Death."
Richardson moved to London in 1853–1854, and took a house at 12 Hinde Street, whence he moved to 25 Manchester Square. In 1854, he was appointed physician to the Blenbeim Street Dispensary, and in 1856 to the Royal Infirmary for Diseases of the Chest in the City Road. He was also physician to the Metropolitan Dispensary (1856), to the Marylebone
, and to the Margaret Street Dispensaries (1856), and in 1892, he became physician to the London Temperance Hospital. For many years he was physician to the "Newspaper Press Fund" and to the "Royal Literary Fund", the committee of which, he was long an active member.
In 1854, Richardson became a lecturer on forensic medicine at the Grosvenor Place School of Medicine, where he was afterwards appointed the first lecturer on public hygiene, posts which he resigned in 1857 for the lectureship on physiology. He remained dean of the school until 1865, when it was sold and, with all the other buildings in the old Tattersall's yard, demolished. Richardson was also a lecturer about this time at the College of Dentists, then occupying a part of the Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street
.
In 1868, Richardson was elected president of the Medical Society of London
, and on several occasions, he was president of the health section of the Social Science Association, notably in 1875, when he delivered a celebrated address at Brighton on "Hygeia", in which he told of what a city should be if sanitary science were advanced in a proper manner. In the same year he gave the Cantor lectures at the Society of Arts, taking "alcohol
" as the subject.
Richardson was elected an honorary member of the Philosophical Society of America in 1863, and of the Imperial Leopold Carolina Academy of Sciences in 1867. He became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
in 1877. In June 1893, he was knighted in recognition of his eminent services to humanitarian causes.
Fr: Il fut également un des plus éminents théoricien de l'urbanisme progressiste dans le courant fouriériste.
for an essay on the "Diseases of the Fetus in Utero". In 1856, he gained the Astley Cooper triennial prize of 300 guineas for his essay on "The Coagulation
of the Blood."
. He married, on February 21, Mary J. Smith of Mortlake
, by whom he left two surviving sons and one daughter.
Richardson was a sanitary reformer, who busied himself with many of the smaller details of domestic sanitation which tend, in the aggregate, to prolong the average life in each generation. He spent many years in attempts to relieve pain among men by discovering and adapting substances capable of producing general or local anesthesia
, and among animals by more humane methods of slaughter. He brought into use, no less than fourteen anesthetics, of which methylene bichloride is the best known, and he invented the first double-valved mouthpiece for use in the administration of chloroform. He also produced local insensibility by freezing the part with an ether spray, and he gave animals, euthanasia
by means of a lethal chamber.
Richardson was an ardent and determined champion of total abstinence
, for he held that alcohol was so powerful a drug that it should only be used by skilled hands in the greatest emergencies. He was also one of the earliest advocates of bicycling; he wrote 'Cycling as an Intellectual Pursuit' for Longman's Magazine in 1883. In 1863, he made known the peculiar properties of amyl nitrite, a drug which was largely used in the treatment of breast-pang (angina pectoris), and he introduced the bromides of quinine, iron and strychnia, ozonized ether, styptic and iodized colloid, peroxide of hydrogen, and ethylate of soda, substances which were soon largely used by the medical profession.
Richardson was one of the most prolific writers of his generation. He wrote biographies, plays, poems, and songs, in addition to his more strictly scientific work. He wrote the Asclepiad, a series of original researches in the science, art, and literature of medicine. A single volume was issued in 1861, after which it appeared quarterly from 1884 to 1895. He was the originator and the editor of the Journal of Public Health and Sanitary Review (1855). He contributed many articles, signed and unsigned, to the Lancet
, the Medical Times and the Gazette.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, anaesthetist, physiologist, sanitarian, and a prolific writer on medical history. He was the recipient of the Fothergill
Medical Society of London
The Medical Society of London is one of the oldest surviving medical societies in the United Kingdom ....
gold medal, awarded by the Medical Society of London in 1854 and of the Astley Cooper
Astley Cooper
Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet was an English surgeon and anatomist, who made historical contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the pathology and surgery of hernia.-Life:Cooper was born at Brooke Hall in Brooke, Norfolk...
triennial prize for an essay in physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
.
He was a close personal friend, and professional colleague, of John Snow. On Snow's sudden death he took over the final editing of Snow's draft On Chloroform and Other Anaesthetics and supervised its publication in 1858. Ward Richardson remained a committed exponent of Snow's radical views on the microbial cause of infectious disease for the rest of his life. He continued, and extended, Snow's work on inhalation anaesthesia and brought into clinical use, no less than fourteen anesthetics, of which methylene bichloride is the best known, and he invented the first double-valved mouthpiece for use in the administration of chloroform
Chloroform
Chloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...
. He also made known the peculiar properties of amyl nitrite
Amyl nitrite
Amyl nitrite is the chemical compound with the formula C5H11ONO. A variety of isomers are known, but they all feature an amyl group attached to the nitrito functional group. The alkyl group is unreactive and the chemical and biological properties are mainly due to the nitrite group...
, a drug which was largely used in the treatment of angina pectoris, and he introduced the bromide
Bromide
A bromide is a chemical compound containing bromide ion, that is bromine atom with effective charge of −1. The class name can include ionic compounds such as caesium bromide or covalent compounds such as sulfur dibromide.-Natural occurrence:...
s of quinine
Quinine
Quinine is a natural white crystalline alkaloid having antipyretic , antimalarial, analgesic , anti-inflammatory properties and a bitter taste. It is a stereoisomer of quinidine which, unlike quinine, is an anti-arrhythmic...
, iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
and strychnia, ozonized ether, styptic and iodized colloid, peroxide of hydrogen
Hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is the simplest peroxide and an oxidizer. Hydrogen peroxide is a clear liquid, slightly more viscous than water. In dilute solution, it appears colorless. With its oxidizing properties, hydrogen peroxide is often used as a bleach or cleaning agent...
, and ethylate of soda, substances which were soon largely used by the medical profession. In 1893, he was knighted in recognition of his eminent services to humanitarian causes.
Education
Richardson was born at SomerbySomerby, Leicestershire
Somerby is a small village and civil parish south of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.Somerby is a small country village containing a parish church , a primary school, a Doctor's surgery,a pub, a small shop/post office, and a large Equestrian Centre...
in Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
, the only son of Benjamin Richardson and Mary Ward. He was educated by the Rev. W. Young Nutt at the Barrow Hill school in the same county. Being destined by the deathbed wish of his mother for the medical profession, his studies were always directed to that end, and he was apprenticed early to Henry Hudson, the surgeon
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
at Somerby.
He entered Anderson's University (now University of Strathclyde
University of Strathclyde
The University of Strathclyde , Glasgow, Scotland, is Glasgow's second university by age, founded in 1796, and receiving its Royal Charter in 1964 as the UK's first technological university...
), in 1847, but a severe attack of famine fever (either typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
or relapsing fever) that he caught while he was a pupil at St. Andrews Lying-in Hospital (now Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital
Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital
Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, was founded as the Glasgow Lying-in Hospital and Dispensary in 1834 in Greyfriars Wynd. It moved to St Andrews Square in 1841 then to Rottenrow in 1860...
), interrupted his studies, and led him to become an assistant, first to Thomas Browne of Saffron Walden
Saffron Walden
Saffron Walden is a medium-sized market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. It is located north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and approx north of London...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, and afterwards to Edward Dudley Hudson at Littlethorpe
Littlethorpe
Littlethorpe is a small village approximately 6 miles south of Leicester, separated from the village of Narborough by the Leicester to Birmingham railway line, and the River Soar....
, Cosby
Cosby
Cosby is a situation comedy television series broadcast on CBS from September 16, 1996 to April 28, 2000, loosely based on the British sitcom One Foot in the Grave. The program starred Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashād...
, near Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
. Hudson was the elder brother of his former master.
In 1854, he was admitted M.A. and M.D. of St. Andrews
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
, where he afterwards became a member of the university court, an assessor of the general council, and in 1877, an honorary LL.D.
Career
In 1849, Richardson left Hudson and joined Dr. Robert Willis of Barnes, well known as the editor of the works of William HarveyWilliam Harvey
William Harvey was an English physician who was the first person to describe completely and in detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the body by the heart...
, and librarian of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...
(1828–1845). Richardson lived at Mortlake
Mortlake
Mortlake is a district of London, England and part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes with East Sheen inland to the south. Mortlake was part of Surrey until 1965.-History:...
, and at about this time, became a member of "Our Club", where he met Douglas Jerrold, Thackeray
Thackeray
Thackeray is the name of:*William Makepeace Thackeray, a novelist*Bal Thackeray, an Indian politician*Edward Talbot Thackeray, a recipient of the Victoria Cross*A David Thackeray, a South African astronomer...
, Hepworth Dixon, Mark Lemon
Mark Lemon
Mark Lemon was founding editor of both Punch and The Field.-Biography:Lemon was born in London on the 30 November 1809. He was the son of Martin Lemon, a hop merchant, and Alice Collis. His parents married on 26 December 1808 at St Mary, Marylebone, London...
, John Doran
John Doran
John Doran , miscellaneous writer of Irish parentage, wrote a number of works dealing with the lighter phases of manners, antiquities, and social history, often bearing punning titles, e.g., Table Traits with Something on Them , and Knights and their Days...
, and George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached an international audience.-Early life:Cruikshank was born in London...
, of whose will he became an executor
Executor
An executor, in the broadest sense, is one who carries something out .-Overview:...
.
In 1850, Richardson was admitted as a licentiate to the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, is an institute of physicians and surgeons in Glasgow, Scotland.Founded by Peter Lowe after receiving a royal charter by James VI in 1599, as the Glasgow Faculty, this institution originally existed as a regulatory authority to ensure that...
. He became a faculty lecturer in 1877, and was elected a Fellow on June 3, 1878.
Richardson was a founder, and for thirty-five times in succession the President of the St. Andrews Medical Graduates' Association. He was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1856, and was elected a Fellow in 1865, serving the office of materia medica
Materia medica
Materia medica is a Latin medical term for the body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing . The term 'materia medica' derived from the title of a work by the Ancient Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in the 1st century AD, De materia medica libre...
lecturer in 1866. In 1867, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and delivered the Croonian lecture in 1873 on "The Muscular Irritability after Systemic Death."
Richardson moved to London in 1853–1854, and took a house at 12 Hinde Street, whence he moved to 25 Manchester Square. In 1854, he was appointed physician to the Blenbeim Street Dispensary, and in 1856 to the Royal Infirmary for Diseases of the Chest in the City Road. He was also physician to the Metropolitan Dispensary (1856), to the Marylebone
Marylebone
Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....
, and to the Margaret Street Dispensaries (1856), and in 1892, he became physician to the London Temperance Hospital. For many years he was physician to the "Newspaper Press Fund" and to the "Royal Literary Fund", the committee of which, he was long an active member.
In 1854, Richardson became a lecturer on forensic medicine at the Grosvenor Place School of Medicine, where he was afterwards appointed the first lecturer on public hygiene, posts which he resigned in 1857 for the lectureship on physiology. He remained dean of the school until 1865, when it was sold and, with all the other buildings in the old Tattersall's yard, demolished. Richardson was also a lecturer about this time at the College of Dentists, then occupying a part of the Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street
Regent Street
Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations...
.
In 1868, Richardson was elected president of the Medical Society of London
Medical Society of London
The Medical Society of London is one of the oldest surviving medical societies in the United Kingdom ....
, and on several occasions, he was president of the health section of the Social Science Association, notably in 1875, when he delivered a celebrated address at Brighton on "Hygeia", in which he told of what a city should be if sanitary science were advanced in a proper manner. In the same year he gave the Cantor lectures at the Society of Arts, taking "alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
" as the subject.
Richardson was elected an honorary member of the Philosophical Society of America in 1863, and of the Imperial Leopold Carolina Academy of Sciences in 1867. He became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...
in 1877. In June 1893, he was knighted in recognition of his eminent services to humanitarian causes.
Fr: Il fut également un des plus éminents théoricien de l'urbanisme progressiste dans le courant fouriériste.
Awards
In 1854, Richardson was awarded the Fothergillian gold medal by the Medical Society of LondonMedical Society of London
The Medical Society of London is one of the oldest surviving medical societies in the United Kingdom ....
for an essay on the "Diseases of the Fetus in Utero". In 1856, he gained the Astley Cooper triennial prize of 300 guineas for his essay on "The Coagulation
Coagulation
Coagulation is a complex process by which blood forms clots. It is an important part of hemostasis, the cessation of blood loss from a damaged vessel, wherein a damaged blood vessel wall is covered by a platelet and fibrin-containing clot to stop bleeding and begin repair of the damaged vessel...
of the Blood."
Epilogue
Richardson died at 25 Manchester Square on November 21, 1896, and his body was cremated at Brookwood, SurreyBrookwood, Surrey
Brookwood is a village in Surrey, located about 5 km west of Woking, in a semi-rural location. It lies on the western border of the Woking Borough ....
. He married, on February 21, Mary J. Smith of Mortlake
Mortlake
Mortlake is a district of London, England and part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes with East Sheen inland to the south. Mortlake was part of Surrey until 1965.-History:...
, by whom he left two surviving sons and one daughter.
Richardson was a sanitary reformer, who busied himself with many of the smaller details of domestic sanitation which tend, in the aggregate, to prolong the average life in each generation. He spent many years in attempts to relieve pain among men by discovering and adapting substances capable of producing general or local anesthesia
Anesthesia
Anesthesia, or anaesthesia , traditionally meant the condition of having sensation blocked or temporarily taken away...
, and among animals by more humane methods of slaughter. He brought into use, no less than fourteen anesthetics, of which methylene bichloride is the best known, and he invented the first double-valved mouthpiece for use in the administration of chloroform. He also produced local insensibility by freezing the part with an ether spray, and he gave animals, euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
by means of a lethal chamber.
Richardson was an ardent and determined champion of total abstinence
Abstinence
Abstinence is a voluntary restraint from indulging in bodily activities that are widely experienced as giving pleasure. Most frequently, the term refers to sexual abstinence, or abstention from alcohol or food. The practice can arise from religious prohibitions or practical...
, for he held that alcohol was so powerful a drug that it should only be used by skilled hands in the greatest emergencies. He was also one of the earliest advocates of bicycling; he wrote 'Cycling as an Intellectual Pursuit' for Longman's Magazine in 1883. In 1863, he made known the peculiar properties of amyl nitrite, a drug which was largely used in the treatment of breast-pang (angina pectoris), and he introduced the bromides of quinine, iron and strychnia, ozonized ether, styptic and iodized colloid, peroxide of hydrogen, and ethylate of soda, substances which were soon largely used by the medical profession.
Richardson was one of the most prolific writers of his generation. He wrote biographies, plays, poems, and songs, in addition to his more strictly scientific work. He wrote the Asclepiad, a series of original researches in the science, art, and literature of medicine. A single volume was issued in 1861, after which it appeared quarterly from 1884 to 1895. He was the originator and the editor of the Journal of Public Health and Sanitary Review (1855). He contributed many articles, signed and unsigned, to the Lancet
The Lancet
The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is one of the world's best known, oldest, and most respected general medical journals...
, the Medical Times and the Gazette.
Resources
- Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National BiographyDictionary of National BiographyThe Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
, Supplement 3, pp. 297–8, Smith, Elder, & Co., London, 1901.