Edward Harrison (physician)

{{Short description|British physician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{Use British English|date=September 2016}}

Edward Harrison (1766, Lancashire – 6 May 1838, Marlborough) was a British physician who described Harrison's groove.Remarks upon the different appearances of the back, breast, and ribs, in persons affected with spinal diseases. London Medical and Physical Journal, 1820. He studied in London under John and William Hunter, and in Edinburgh where he received his doctorate in 1784. He practised in Horncastle, Lincolnshire for 30 years, founding the Horncastle Dispensary and the Lincolnshire Medical Benevolent Society. He was an advocate of medical reform, reporting on the lack of regulation of physicians, surgeons and apothecaries, and suggesting that regulation of education and licensing was needed. This plan was thwarted by opposition from the Royal College of Physicians.Andrew Wear. Medicine in society, page 232. Cambridge University Press, 1992. {{ISBN|978-0-521-33639-0}}. He also founded the first infirmary for spinal diseases in London in 1837.{{cite journal |author=Weiner MF, Silver JR |title=Edward Harrison and the treatment of spinal deformities in the nineteenth century |journal=J R Coll Physicians Edinb |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=265–71 |date=September 2008 |doi=10.1177/1478271520083803028 |pmid=19227603 }} [http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/journal/issue/journal_38_3/weiner_silver.pdf Full text] He was a member of the Royal Society.