Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson. 51 



iarly in connection with Polar Service.' In 1857 he was elected 

 a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and in 1873 he became 

 F.R.S. In 1871 he received his K.C.B., Military Division. 



Sir Alexander married, in 1894, Charlotte, Lady King-Hall, widow 

 of Admiral Sir William King-Hall. He died July 4, 1899, aged 81. 



M. F. 



SIR BENJAMIN WARD RICHARDSON. 1828-1896. 



BENJAMIN WARD RICHARDSON was born at Somerby, in Leicester- 

 shire on October 31, 1828. He died November 21, 1896. In his 

 boyhood he was an ardent naturalist ; and for life he remained a 

 naturalist in his diverse interests, and his intense curiosity in all 

 natural phenomena. Had he concentrated his powers upon one 

 department of research, he would have left a greater name to posterity, 

 but he would have been a less interesting, and in his generation, pro- 

 bably, a less useful man. Richardson's scientific bent led him to 

 medicine, and he was peculiarly fortunate in the two practitioners with 

 whom he was placed as a pupil, both of them being men of like 

 tastes to his own. Early in his career he found a chief interest in the 

 practice of anesthesia, and he then invented a chloroform inhaler. On 

 settling in London to practise, he pursued his study, and thus became 

 engaged in a research into the alcohol and ether series; it was char- 

 acteristic of him that in this research he never lost sight of practical 

 applications: he introduced "bichloride of methylene" as an anaes- 

 thetic \ he invented the " ether spray " for local anaesthesia, and the 

 " lethal chamber, " still in use, for the painless extinction of dogs and 

 other animals. His energy and endurance were marvellous, no subject 

 in or near the sphere of medicine did he leave untouched ; in many of 

 them he showed some originality of conception, and none did he fail 

 to enliven with some fresh illustration. Thus his lectures were very 

 popular and effective. A general reference may here be made to his 

 work on pharmacology, especially on nitrite of amyl ; on toxicology ; 

 on oxygen and artificial respiration. 



In 1854 he obtained the Fothergillian Medal of the Medical Society 

 of London for an essay on the " Diseases of the Foetus in Utero " ; and 

 in 1856 the Astley Cooper Prize for his essay on "The Coagulation 

 of the Blood." 



Richardson's vigilant eye to immediate usefulness to the applica- 



D 2 



