Richard Dugard Grainger

Richard Dugard Grainger FRCS FRS (1801–1865), English surgeon, anatomist and physiologist. Granger was the brother of Edward Grainger, whose anatomical school he carried forward. Granger was lecturer to St Thomas's Hospital 1842–60, Hunterian Orator 1848. He was an inspector for the Children's Employment Commission (1841), the Board of Health (1849), author of a report on cholera (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). His Fellowship of the Royal Society was gained by his work on the spinal cord, which supported Marshall Hall's work on the reflex arc. ["The concise DNB" (Dictionary of National Biography): volume 1 to 1900. Oxford University Press. p522]

Grainger was the son of a Birmingham surgeon, educated at a grammar school. He ran the private Webb Street anatomy school for twenty years before joining St Thomas's. 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 ]

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