"John Snow (1813-1858) and Benjamin Ward Richardson (1828-1896): a notable friendship."

""John Snow (1813-1858) and Benjamin Ward Richardson (1828-1896): a notable friendship.""

(February 1999)Journal of Medical Biography 7 (1999): 42-49

PDF from photocopy; Taubman Medical Library, University of Michigan.

According to Roberts, her main sources of information for Richardson are a biographical essay written by his daughter, Mrs. George Martin, and a biography by Arthur S. MacNalty. For Snow, she relied primarily on various versions of Richardson's own memoir, the first of which appeared with the post-humous publication of Snow's On Chloroform and Other Anæsthetics (1858). See her "References and notes," pp. 48-49.

Roberts appears to have accepted the credibility of Richardson's memoir, with two exceptions: she cites Leaman and Ellis when she suggests that Charles Empson contributed financially to Snow's medical training (43); and she considers Richardson's account of the "Soho epidemic" overly dramatic and inaccurate (46). [PVJ]