Richard Russell (doctor)

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Richard Russell (1687 – 1759) was an eighteenth century British doctor who encouraged his patients to use what was later called the "water cure", that is, medical therapy by the submersion in, and drinking of, seawater. He began his medical practice in Lewes in 1725. He published his treatise Glandular Diseases, or a Dissertation on the Use of Sea Water in the Affections of the Glands in 1750 when he was practicing medicine in Lewes. He recommended especially that people try the water near Brighton, where he later built a house in 1753 on the site of what is now the Royal Albion Hotel. This house was large enough to accommodate not only his household, but visiting patients as well.

After Dr Russell's death in 1759, his house was rented to seasonal visitors, including the brother of George III the Duke of Cumberland in 1771. On 7 September 1783 the Prince Regent (then the Prince of Wales) visited his uncle. The Prince's subsequent patronage of the town for the next 40 years was central to the rapid growth of the town and the transition of the fishing village of Brighthelmston to the modern town of Brighton.

The water cure was very popular in the eighteen and nineteenth centuries.