John Hughes Bennett

John Hughes Bennett (1812-1875), English physician and pathologist, was born in London on the 31st of August 1812. He was educated at Exeter, and being destined for the medical profession was articled to a surgeon in Maidstone. In 1833 he began his studies at Edinburgh, and in 1837 graduated with the highest honours. During the next four years he studied in Paris and Germany, and on his return to Edinburgh in 1841 published a Treatise on Cod-liver Oil as a Therapeutic Agent. In the same year he began to lecture as an extra-academical teacher on histology, drawing attention to the importance of the microscope in the investigation of disease; and as physician to the Royal Dispensary he instituted courses of "polyclinical medicine." In 1843 he was appointed professor of the institutes of medicine at Edinburgh, and performed the duties of that chair with great energy till incapacitated by failing health. He resigned in 1874. In August 1875 he was able to be present at the meeting of the British Medical Association in Edinburgh, on which occasion he received the degree of LL.D., but the fatigue he then underwent brought on a relapse, and he was compelled to have the operation of lithotomy performed. He sank rapidly and died on the 25th of September at Norwich. His publications were very numerous including Lectures on Clinical Medicine (1850-1856), which in second and subsequent editions were called Clinical Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Medicine, and were translated into various languages, including Russian and Hindu; Leucocythaemia (1852), the first recorded cure of which was published by him in 1845; Outlines of Physiology (1858), reprinted from the 8th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica; Pathology and Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis (1853); Textbook of Physiology (1871-1872).