author
Sir Raymond Henry Payne Crawfurd
1865–1938
A distinguished British physician who also became a noted medical historian, he wrote with unusual range about epidemics, royal healing rituals, and the history of medicine. His work brings scholarly depth to subjects where science, culture, and belief meet.
1 Audiobook
Plague and pestilence in literature and art
by Sir Raymond Henry Payne Crawfurd
About the author
Sir Raymond Henry Payne Crawfurd (1865–1938) was a British physician, teacher, and writer whose career joined clinical medicine with historical scholarship. He studied classics at Oxford before training in medicine at King's College Hospital, and he went on to hold important posts there as well as at the Royal College of Physicians.
Alongside his medical and administrative work, he became well known for writing on the history of medicine. His books explored subjects such as plague in literature and art and the long tradition of the "royal touch," showing a strong interest in how disease is understood not only by doctors, but by whole societies.
He was knighted and remembered as both an influential physician and a careful medical historian. For readers today, his appeal lies in that combination: professional authority, historical curiosity, and a gift for turning old medical subjects into vivid stories.