Horace Dobell
{{short description|English doctor and medical writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2016}}
{{Infobox medical person|birth_name=Horace Benge Dobell|birth_date={{birth date|1828|1|1|df=yes}}|death_date={{death date and age|1917|2|22|1828|1|1|df=yes}}|image=Horace Benge Dobell.jpg|death_place=Parkstone, Dorset, England|nationality=English|birth_place=London, England|caption=Dobell in the 19th century|education=St Bartholomew's Hospital (M.R.C.S.)
University of St Andrews (M.D.)|occupation=Doctor, medical writer|signature=Horace Dobell signature (cropped from Cancer of the scrotum Wellcome L0062115).jpg}}
Horace Benge Dobell (1 January 1828 – 22 February 1917) was an English doctor and medical writer, consulting doctor to the Royal Infirmary/Hospital for Diseases of the Chest.
Life
Horace Dobell was born in London on 1 January 1828.Dr Williams' Library Newgate St., London, Eng; Collection:; Nonconformist Registers 1815 - 1832; Film Number: 815924.{{cite journal |doi=10.1136/bmj.1.2932.350-c |pmc=2348306 |title=THOMAS SEYMOUR TUKE, M.A., M.B., B.Ch.Oxon |journal=BMJ |volume=1 |issue=2932 |pages=350–351 |year=1917 }} His father, John Dobell, was a wine merchant and his mother Julietta was a daughter of Samuel Thompson (1766–1837), a London political reformer.{{cite news |author=|title=Death of Mr Sydney Dobell|work=Stroud News and Gloucestershire Advertiser|page=5|date=28 August 1874}} He was a younger brother of the poet Sydney Dobell.{{cite news |author=|title=Obituary|work=Evening Mail|page=7|date=23 February 1917}} In 1849 he married Elizabeth Mary Fordham, daughter of George Fordham of Odsey House, Cambridgeshire.{{cite news |author=|title=Marriages|work=Worcester Journal|page=3|date=12 July 1849}} They had three daughters.
Dobell’s choice of medical specialism was apparently made when he was still a student and courting his future wife. While on vacation in Gloucestershire, he and Elizabeth Fordham had ridden out to sketch a village church. When Elizabeth saw a plaque that recorded the death of seven brothers and sisters from consumption (tuberculosis), the disease that killed many of her close relations, she became emotional and expressed her dismay that doctors were powerless to prevent it. Dobell then asked "What if I should devote my life to discovering a cure for this scourge?" Elizabeth replied "I would idolise the man who could so dignify a doctor’s life."{{cite book|last= |first= |author-link= |date=1910|title=The Poetical Works of Mrs. Horace Dobell; with a Biographical Sketch|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924013453935/page/n65/mode/2up|location=London |publisher= Smith, Elder|pages= 16–17}}
He gained his M.R.C.S. diploma at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1849, and gained a M.D. from the University of St Andrews in 1856. From 1859 to 1875 he was Physician at the Royal Infirmary/Hospital for Diseases of the Chest.[http://www.artandmedicine.com/biblio/authors/english/Dobell.html On affections of the heart] at the [http://www.artandmedicine.com Cabinet for Art and Medicine] In 1863 Charles Darwin wrote to Dobell to thank him for a copy of his On the germs and vestiges of disease and they corresponded on matters related to hereditary conditions.{{cite web | website=Darwin Online | url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=95&itemID=A27&viewtype=side | access-date=17 June 2023 | title=Darwin}}{{cite web |url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/search?keyword=Darwin;f1-date=1863;expand=correspondent;f2-correspondent=Dobell,%20H.%20B.|title=Darwin Correspondence Project|website=University of Cambridge|date=3 May 2015 |access-date=April 1, 2021}}
In 1882 Dobell moved to Bournemouth, where in 1885 he became a consulting physician at the newly opened Mont Dore hydropathic sanatorium for patients with chest diseases.{{cite book|author=Horace Dobell|title=The Medical Aspects of Bournemouth and Its Surroundings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IhIHAAAAQAAJ|year=1885|publisher=Smith, Elder|page=2|isbn=978-1-02-239521-3 }}{{cite news|title=The Mont Dore, Bournemouth|work=Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News|page=5|date=24 October 1885}} One of his patients was the author R L Stevenson.{{cite news|title=Obituary|work= Evening Mail|page=7|date=23 February 1917}}
Dobell died at his home in Parkstone, Dorset on 22 February 1917. He was buried in Parkstone Cemetery alongside his late wife.{{cite book|last= |first= |author-link= |date=1910|title=The Poetical Works of Mrs. Horace Dobell; with a Biographical Sketch|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924013453935/page/n47/mode/2up|location=London |publisher= Smith, Elder|page=Plate XI}}
Works
- Demonstrations of diseases in the chest and their physical diagnosis, 1858
- [https://archive.org/details/b21923863 Lectures on the germs and vestiges of disease, and on the prevention of the invasion and fatality of disease by periodical examinations], 1861
- [https://archive.org/details/b22308544 A manual of diet and regimen for physician and patient], 1864
- On tuberculosis: its nature, cause, and treatment; with notes on pancreatic juice, 1866
- On diet and regimen in sickness and health: and on the interdependence and prevention of diseases and the diminution of their fatality, 1870
- On winter cough, catarrh, bronchitis, emphysema, asthma : a course of lectures delivered at the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, 1872
- On affections of the heart and in its neighbourhood. Cases, aphorisms, and commentaries, London: H. K. Lewis, 1872. Second ed., 1876
- [https://archive.org/details/oncoughsconsumpt00dobeiala On coughs, consumption, and diet in disease], 1877
- On loss of weight, blood spitting, and lung disease, 1878
- The medical aspects of Bournemouth and its surroundings, 1885
References
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