Benjamin Guy Babington (5 March 1794 – 8 April 1866) was an English physician and epidemiologist.[1]
He was born on 5 March 1794, the son of the physician and mineralogist William Babington (1756–1833) and his wife, Martha Elizabeth (née Hough) Babington.
After serving as a midshipman and studying at Charterhouse School from 1803 to 1807 and then the East India Company College at Hayleybury until 1812, he worked in government at Madras, India. Returning to England, he studied medicine at Guy's Hospital and Cambridge, receiving his doctorate in 1831. He then became Assistant Physician at Guy's but resigned after a disagreement in 1855. During his career, he invented several medical instruments (including the first larygoscope) and techniques. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
He was Secretary to The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland and in March, 1828 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. [2] In 1850 he founded the London Epidemiological Society and was its chairman for many years. At least one authority refers to the founding as the beginning of modern epidemiology.[3] In 1863 he was also president of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society.
He was named after his father's best friend - Benjamin Fayle and the fact that he was born in Guy's Hospital. He married Benjamin Fayle's daughter Anna Mary, who gave him four children. He also became a director of B.Fayle and Co.(Merchants) together with his sister-in-law (Charlotte Fayle) and his brother-in-law (Rev Richard Fayle)
He died on 8 April 1866 [4].
He wrote several papers and translated several others, icluding: