Horace Dobell
Dobell in the 19th century
Born	Horace Benge Dobell (1828-01-01)1 January 1828 London, England
Died	22 February 1917(1917-02-22) (aged 89) Parkstone, Dorset, England
Nationality	English
Education	St Bartholomew's Hospital ( M.R.C.S.) University of St Andrews ( M.D.)
Occupation(s)	Doctor, medical writer
Signature

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. ^{[1] [2]} His father, John Dobell, was a wine merchant and his mother Julietta was a daughter of Samuel Thompson (1766–1837), a London political reformer. ^[3] He was a younger brother of the poet Sydney Dobell. ^[4] In 1849 he married Elizabeth Mary Fordham, daughter of George Fordham of Odsey House, Cambridgeshire. ^[5] 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." ^[6]

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. ^[7] 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. ^{[8] [9]}

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. ^{[10] [11]} One of his patients was the author R L Stevenson. ^[12]

Dobell died at his home in Parkstone, Dorset on 22 February 1917. ^[2] He was buried in Parkstone Cemetery alongside his late wife. ^[13]

Works

• Demonstrations of diseases in the chest and their physical diagnosis, 1858
• Lectures on the germs and vestiges of disease, and on the prevention of the invasion and fatality of disease by periodical examinations, 1861
• 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 ^[7]
• 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