James Bower Harrison

Born in Manchester in 1814, he became an influential figure in the city’s mid-Victorian medical world. He trained in Manchester and at University College Hospital in London, later earned an MD from St Andrews, and worked as a surgeon and physician in local institutions including the Ancoats and Ardwick Dispensary.

He is remembered not only as a practicing doctor but also as a prolific writer on medicine and public health. His books included The Philosophy of Disease, Popular Medical Errors, and The Medical Aspects of Death, and the Medical Aspects of the Human Mind, and he also wrote on subjects such as lead poisoning in water and the health dangers of lucifer-match manufacture.

His career shows a strong interest in explaining medical ideas to a wider public while also tackling practical health risks of everyday life. He died in 1890, leaving behind a body of work that offers a vivid glimpse into the concerns of nineteenth-century medicine.