author
Bence Jones
1814–1873
A 19th-century physician and chemist, he helped bring laboratory science into everyday medicine. His name lives on through the protein discovered in urine that became an important clue in diagnosing multiple myeloma.
1 Audiobook
The Royal Institution: Its Founder and First Professors
by Bence Jones
About the author
Born in Suffolk in late 1813 and often listed as 1814 in older reference works, Henry Bence Jones studied at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, before training in medicine and chemistry in London and in Giessen under Justus von Liebig. He went on to build a career that combined bedside medicine with chemical investigation at a time when that approach was still new.
He is best remembered for identifying the unusual urinary protein later called the Bence Jones protein, a finding that became closely associated with multiple myeloma. Beyond that famous discovery, he worked on disorders involving the kidneys, urine, and digestion, and was known for using chemical analysis and the microscope to improve diagnosis.
Bence Jones also held prominent roles in British scientific life, serving at St George's Hospital, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society, and acting for many years as secretary of the Royal Institution. He wrote widely on medicine and science, and he is still remembered as one of the early figures who helped connect chemistry with clinical practice.