Benjamin Ward Richardson

Benjamin Ward Richardson combined Victorian medicine, physiology, public-health reform, and prolific medical writing. Born in 1828, Richardson later lectured on forensic medicine, hygiene, physiology, and materia medica, studied anaesthetics, and became a fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society. The Future of Sanitary Science developed an address delivered to the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain at the Royal Institution in 1877. Published by Macmillan in 1878, it argued that medicine’s future depended increasingly on preventing disease through sanitation, administration, and domestic knowledge. The Tricycle In Relation To Health And Recreation (1885) approached exercise with the same reforming attention. Issued by W. Isbister, the book considered riding technique, fatigue, breathing, food, clothing, equipment, and the suitability of cycling for different riders. Richardson was himself an early advocate of bicycling, making the latter work a practical extension of his broader interest in everyday health.