Francis Cornelius Webb (1826–1873) was an English physician and medical writer.

Born inHoxton Square east of London on 9 April 1826, he was the eldest son of William Webb, a cadet of the family of Webb ofOdstock Manor, by his second wife, Elizabeth Priscilla, daughter of Thomas Massett. He was educated atKing's College School, London, and at Devonport Grammar School.^[1]

On 25 September 1841 Webb was apprenticed to James Sheppard, a surgeon at Stonehouse, and in 1843 he joined the medical school ofUniversity College, London. He was awarded five gold and silver medals for proficiency in different classes. In 1847 he became a member of theCollege of Surgeons of London; in 1849 he went to Edinburgh, graduating M.D. there in 1850 with the thesis"On the general anatomy, physiology and development of the arterial system".^[2] In 1851 he returned to London.^[1]

In 1859 Webb was appointed a member of theRoyal College of Physicians, and he was elected a fellow on 31 July 1873. In 1857 he was nominated to the chair of medical jurisprudence in the Grosvenor Place school of medicine, and subsequently he was lecturer on natural history at the Metropolitan School of Dental Science. At the end of the 1860s he became one of the editors of theMedical Times and Gazette, and for the last years of his life he was editor-in-chief.^[1]

Webb was elected a fellow of theSociety of Antiquaries of London on 22 May 1856, of theLinnean Society on 21 January 1858, and of other learned bodies. He died on 24 December 1873, and was buried on the west side ofHighgate Cemetery.^[1]

In 1861 at the Grosvenor Place school Webb delivered the introductory lecture onThe Study of Medicine: its Dignity and Rewards, which was published. His first significant work was an article on "The Sweating Sickness in England", published in theSanitary Review and Journal of Public Health for July 1857, later republished separately. It was followed by "An Historical Account of Gaol Fever", read before the Epidemiological Society on 6 July 1857, and printed in theTransactions of the society. In 1858 he wrote an essay on "Metropolitan Hygiene of the Past" was written by Webb for theSanitary Review; it was reprinted separately in the same year. It surveyed the sanitary condition of London from the time of the Norman conquest.^[1]

When the major work ofJohn Hunter on the teeth was published in theDental Review, Webb contributed updated notes to the text,Hunter's Natural History of the Human Teeth,’ with notes by Webb and Robert Thomas Hulme, appeared in 1865. Webb published alsoBiographies of Sir Benjamin Brodie, Bart., and of P. C. Price, Surgeon to King's College Hospital, London, 1865.^[1]

On 10 February 1852 Webb married Sarah Schröder, daughter of Joseph Croucher of Great James's Street,Buckingham Gate. They had 12 children, ten of whom survived him.^[1]

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Webb, Francis Cornelius".Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 60. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

• 1826 births
• 1873 deaths
• Burials at Highgate Cemetery
• 19th-century English medical doctors
• English medical writers
• English magazine editors
• Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
• 19th-century English journalists
• English male journalists
• 19th-century English male writers

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