William Guy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about a British physician and medical statistician.. For the Governor of North Dakota, see William L. Guy.

William Augustus Guy (13 June 1810 - 10 September 1885) was a British physician and medical statistician.

He was educated at Christ's Hospital and Guy's Hospital; he then studied at the University of Heidelberg and the University of Paris before getting a Bachelor of Medicine degree from the University of Cambridge, 1837.

In 1842, he was appointed professor of forensic medicine at King's College London and assistant physician at King's College Hospital, 1842; he was dean of the faculty of medicine, 1846-58. He also served as Medical Superintendent at Millbank Prison from 1859 to 1869, acting as a semi-official government advisor on prison health, diet and hygiene.

He edited the Journal of the Statistical Society of London (now the Royal Statistical Society), 1852-6 and was its president, 1873-5. The Society still presents the Guy Medals (in gold, silver and bronze) in his memory.

He was vice-president of the Royal Society, 1876-7, and Croonian (1861), Lumleian (1868), and Harveian (1875) lecturer at the Royal College of Physicians.

He was a founder of the Health of Towns Association and a member of the Commission on Penal Servitude and Criminal Lunacy. He published two books - "Principles of Forensic Medicine" (1844) and "Public Health" (1870-4) - and many statistical papers.