Bennett, John Hughes

PHYSIOLOGIST, PATHOLOGIST, PHYSICIAN (ENGLAND)
BORN 31 Aug 1812, London - DIED 25 Sep 1875, Norwich, Norfolk
GRAVE LOCATION Edinburgh: Dean Cemetery, Dean Path (by the side of his friends John Goodsir and Edward Forbes)

John Hughes Bennett is known for being the first person who described leukemia as a blood disorder in "Case of Hypertrophy of the Spleen and Liver in which Death Took Place from Suppuration of the Blood" (1845) and as the first physician who described aspergillosis. He studied in Edinburgh from 1833 to 1837, two years in Paris and two years in Germany. He returned to Edinburgh, where he was elected into the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1843. He worked as a lecturer and as a and as physician to the Royal Public Dispensary of Edinburgh. He had the reputation of being an outstanding teacher and his methods were known outside Edinburgh. In 1844 he married Jessie Samuel (1824-1906) and their son Alexander Hughes Bennett (1848-1901) became a neurologist in London.

Bennett became the editor of the Monthly Journal of Medical Science in 1846 and later he would be its proprietor. In 1849 he became a member of the American Philosophical Society. In 1855 he was a candidate for the highly desired chair of medicine at the University of Edinburgh, but he lost to Thomas Laycock (1812-1876). He published "Clinical Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Medicine" in 1856. In 1859 he became the president of the Harveian Society and he was elected into the French Academy of Medicine in 1873. He supported the admission of female students in Edinburgh in 1869.

In 1875 he underwent a lithotomy operation and he died nine days later at Norwich. He was buried near his friend John Goodsir at Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.

Related persons
• was a friend of Goodsir, John

Images

The grave of John Hughes Bennett at Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh.
Picture by Androom (05 Nov 2019)

 

Sources
John Hughes Bennett
John Hughes Bennett - Wikipedia


Bennewitz von Loefen, Carl

Published: 13 Jul 2022
Last update: 13 Jul 2022