Edward Nathaniel Bancroft facts for kids

Edward Nathaniel Bancroft (1772–1842) was an English doctor, plant expert (botanist), and animal expert (zoologist). He is best known for his ideas and writings about yellow fever, a serious illness.

Life

Edward Bancroft was born in London in 1772. His father was also named Edward Bancroft. He went to school with famous teachers like Charles Burney and Samuel Parr. Later, he studied at St. John's College, Cambridge, and became a doctor in 1794.

In 1795, he became a doctor for the army. He worked in different places, including the Windward Islands, Portugal, and the Mediterranean. He also joined an important army trip to Egypt in 1801. When he came back to England in 1804, he got his M.D. degree and started working as a doctor in London. He also kept his army rank, but on half-pay.

He joined the College of Physicians in 1805 and became a full member in 1806. He was asked to give special talks called Gulstonian lectures that same year. By 1808, at age 36, he became a censor (a type of supervisor) at the college. He also wrote papers arguing against the ideas of army surgeons. In 1808, he became a doctor at St George's Hospital.

In 1811, Edward Bancroft stopped working in London because he wasn't feeling well. He went back to full-time work as an army doctor and moved to Jamaica. He stayed in Jamaica for 31 years, becoming a high-ranking officer in army hospitals. He passed away in Kingston on September 18, 1842, when he was 70 years old. Doctors and surgeons in Jamaica placed a special plaque in the Kingston cathedral to remember him.

Like many navy doctors of his time, Dr. Bancroft was also a naturalist, someone who studies nature. He was the first to use the name Manta for the large ocean fish. He wrote about it in his paper called On the fish known in Jamaica as the sea-devil in 1829.

His Writings and Ideas

Bancroft wrote two early papers in 1808. These papers were about changes planned for the army medical department. He argued that there should be clear differences between army doctors and regimental surgeons, and that army doctors should have higher rank. Other army medical officers, James McGrigor and Robert Jackson, disagreed with him. They said he wasn't accurate or fair.

Edward Bancroft is best remembered for his book, "Essay on the Disease called Yellow Fever." This book also included his ideas about other fevers and diseases. He gave some of these ideas as lectures at the College of Physicians in 1806 and 1807. The book was published in London in 1811, with a follow-up in 1817.

His book changed how many doctors in England thought about diseases. At that time, many people believed that serious diseases like yellow fever could just appear out of nowhere. Bancroft argued that this was not true. He believed that diseases, like animals and plants, must have been created by God and spread from one person to another, rather than just appearing. He said, "There is no chance... of thus generating anything so wonderful and so immutable as contagion."

Bancroft also thought that yellow fever was a type of malarial fever. Even though some doctors later disagreed with his specific reasons, his ideas about how diseases spread became very popular.

See also

In Spanish: Edward Nathaniel Bancroft para niños