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Henry Gray | |
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| Born | 1827 (1827) Belgravia, London, England |
| Died | 13 June 1861(1861-06-13) (aged 33–34) Belgravia, London, England |
| Resting place | Highgate Cemetery (west side) |
| Known for | Gray's Anatomy |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Anatomy |
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Henry GrayFRS (1827 – 13 June 1861) was a Britishanatomist andsurgeon most notable for publishing the bookGray's Anatomy. He was elected aFellow of the Royal Society (FRS) at the age of 25.
Gray was born inBelgravia, London, in 1827[1][2] and lived most of his life in London. In 1842, he entered as a student atSt. George's Hospital, London (then situated in Belgravia, now moved toTooting), and he is described by those who knew him as a most painstaking and methodical worker, and one who learned his anatomy by the slow but invaluable method of making dissections for himself.
While still a student, Gray secured the triennial prize ofRoyal College of Surgeons in 1848 for an essay entitledThe Origin, Connexions and Distribution ofnerves to thehuman eye and its appendages, illustrated by comparative dissections of the eye in othervertebrate animals. In 1852, at the early age of 25, he was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society, and in the following year he obtained theAstley Cooper prize of three hundredguineas for a dissertation "On the structure and Use ofSpleen."
In 1858, Gray published the first edition ofAnatomy, which covered 750 pages and contained 363 figures. He had the good fortune of securing the help of his friendHenry Vandyke Carter, a skilled draughtsman and formerly a demonstrator of anatomy at St. George's Hospital. Carter made the drawings from which the engravings were executed. The excellence of Carter's illustrations contributed greatly to the initial success of the book. This edition was dedicated to SirBenjamin Collins Brodie. A second edition was prepared by Gray and published in 1860. The book is still published under the titleGray's Anatomy and widely appreciated as an authoritative textbook formedical students.
Gray held successively the posts of demonstrator ofAnatomy, curator of the museum and Lecturer of Anatomy at St. George's Hospital and was in 1861 a candidate for the post of assistant surgeon.
Gray was struck by an attack of confluentsmallpox, the most deadly type of the disease where individual lesions become so numerous that they join as a continuous, "confluent" sheet. He is assumed to have been infected due to his extended and meticulous caring for his ten-year-old nephew, Charles Gray, who did eventually recover.
On 13 June 1861, the day he was to appear for an interview as a final candidate for a prestigious post at the St. George's Hospital, he died at the age of 34.[3] He was buried atHighgate Cemetery.[4][5] Gray had been vaccinated against smallpox as a child with one of the early forms of the vaccine.[6]
