Richard Dugard Grainger

FRCS Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (FRCS) is a professional qualification to practise as a senior surgeon in Ireland or the United Kingdom. It is bestowed on an intercollegiate basis by the four Royal Colleges of Surgeons (the Royal C ...

FRS (1801 – 1 February 1865) was an English surgeon, anatomist and physiologist. Grainger was born in Birmingham, the son of a surgeon, and educated at a grammar school. He was the brother of

Edward Grainger Edward Grainger (1797–1824) was an English teacher of anatomy and dresser to Sir Astley Cooper. Grainger opened an anatomical school in Webb Street, Southwark, London in 1819 after his offer to teach at Guy's Hospital was rejected. The sch ...

, whose anatomical school he carried forward. He ran the private Webb Street anatomy school for twenty years before joining

St Thomas's Hospital St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. It is one of the institutions that compose the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foun ...

as a lecturer from 1842 to 1860. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal College of Surgeons of England The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is an independent professional body and registered charity that promotes and advances standards of surgical care for patients, and regulates surgery and dentistry in England and Wales. The ...

and delivered their

Hunterian oration The Hunterian Oration is a lecture of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The oration was founded in 1813 by the executors of the will of pioneering surgeon John Hunter, his nephew Dr Matthew Baillie and his brother-in-law Sir Everard Home ...

in 1848. He was an inspector for the Children's Employment Commission (1841), the

Board of Health Local boards or local boards of health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate environment ...

(1849), author of a report on

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

(1850) and inspector under the Burials Act 1853. Grainger refused money from a testimonial, which was then used to found the Grainger prize. He was the author of ''Elements of general anatomy'' (1829) and ''Observations on... the spinal cord'' (1837). He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in January 1846 for his work on the

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the spi ...

, which supported Marshall Hall's work on the reflex arc. His application citation read: ''The Discoverer of the structure of the Fallopian Tube in Mammalia. The Author of Observations on the Structure & Functions of the Spinal Cord, &c. Distinguished for his acquaintance with the science of physiology. Eminent as a Physiologist''. A tall, stooping man, he was a medical and social reformer, and was active in the Christian Medical Association. Desmond A. 1989. ''The politics of evolution: morphology, medicine and reform in radical London''. Chicago. p422

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grainger, Richard Dugard 1801 births 1865 deaths Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons Fellows of the Royal Society English surgeons People from Birmingham, West Midlands