author
Benjamin Ward Richardson
1828–1896
A Victorian doctor and reformer whose writing ranged from public health and anesthesia to medical history and fiction, he brought scientific curiosity and a storyteller’s energy to everything he wrote.
1 Audiobook
Hygeia, a City of Health
by Benjamin Ward Richardson
About the author
Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson was an English physician, physiologist, anesthetist, and public-health campaigner born in Somerby, Leicestershire, on October 31, 1828. He trained in medicine in Glasgow and at the University of St Andrews, later building a distinguished career in London.
Alongside medical practice, he became known for experimental work on anesthesia and for energetic advocacy on sanitation, hygiene, and temperance. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and was knighted in 1893, reflecting the high regard he earned in Victorian scientific and medical life.
He was also a notably prolific writer. In addition to medical books and essays, he wrote on the history of medicine and produced imaginative works of fiction, making him an author whose books can appeal to listeners interested in both science and the wider world of 19th-century ideas.