Benjamin Guy Babington: Founding President of the London Epidemiological Society

In 1986 Geoffrey Rose wrote1 ‘If the origin of epidemiology as a branch of medical science were to be given a date it would be 1850. That year saw the first recorded use in English of the new term, which was taken as the title of the “London Epidemiological Society”.’ Rose went on to list the founder members as including William Farr, William Budd, Thomas Addison and John Snow. It is surprising that he omits the name of the Society’s first President, Benjamin Guy Babington, because: ‘When in 1850, on the cessation of the second European visitation of cholera, the Epidemiological Society was first projected, the name of Babington was at once thought of as that of the most fit and efficient leader of the movement.’2 The Epidemiological Society may have grown out of the Statistical Society of London which was formed in 18343 as the two societies had members in common. The Society met first in March 1850 and subsequently in July, under the Chairmanship of Lord Ashley, when Babington was elected President. Benjamin Guy Babington was one of several sons of William Babington who was born in 1755 in Portglenone, Co Antrim where his father, Humphrey, was a Church of Ireland minister.4 A famous ancestor was Anthony, the Architect of the Babington Plot to murder Queen Elizabeth I which was the instrument which brought Mary Queen of Scots to the block. For his part in the Plot, Babington was hung, drawn and quartered in even more than usually barbarous circumstances.5 Another ancestor fought at the Battle of the Boyne. William Babington became Physician to Guy’s Hospital and leader of the profession in London.6 One source states that his son Benjamin was born in Guy’s Hospital in 1794 (hence his middle name) although it seems that William was not appointed there until 1795.7 Benjamin was educated at Charterhouse and then entered the Royal Navy serving at Copenhagen and Walcheren in 1809. After further education he joined the Indian Civil Service where he soon became an accomplished Oriental scholar, translating into English the Tamul (the Dravidian language)—Latin grammar of C J Beschius7 ‘before he had completed his twentieth year’.2 After about 10 years in India his health broke down and he returned to England, already a widower with a family.5 He took up Medicine taking the degree of MB at Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1825 and the full degree of MD in 1830. ‘On the first appearance of epidemic cholera in 1832, he devoted much attention to the investigation of the disease and the following year published a translation from the German of Hecker’s work on the Black Death and other epidemics of the middle ages.’2 In 1837 he was elected Assistant Physician to Guy’s Hospital in preference to Dr Thomas Hodgkin,8 who was later to describe Hodgkin’s disease. In 1840 Babington became a full Physician.7 Babington delivered his inaugural address to the Epidemiological Society on 2 December 1850 in the presence of about 100 members and visitors.9 He described how the Honorary Secretary, Mr Tucker, under the pseudonym ‘Pater’ had written to the Lancet to float the idea of such a Society. The address is masterful, ‘The object of this Society I take to be to endeavour, by the light of modern science, to review all those causes which result in the manifestation and spread of epidemic diseases— to discover causes at present unknown, and investigate those which are ill understood—to collect together facts, on which scientific researches may be securely based—to remove errors which impede their progress—and thus, so far as we are able, having made ourselves thoroughly acquainted with the strongholds of our enemies, and their modes of attack, to suggest © International Epidemiological Association 2001 Printed in Great Britain