Heberden, William (1710-1801)

English physician. For some years he practised in Cambridge, England, where he acquired the reputation of a good classical scholar. While there he published Antitheriaka: an Essay on Mithridatium and Theriaka (1745); his criticism of these two substances led to their removal from the pharmacopoeia. Heberden moved to London in 1748 and practised there for over 31 years, becoming one of the most eminent physicians of his day.

Heberden was born in London, England. He was educated at London and Cambridge universities, graduating from the latter in 1728, before going on to study medicine. Samuel Johnson called him ‘the last of our learned physicians’. His medical research was wide-ranging, and he gave the first account of angina pectoris, described the nodes seen on the fingers in rheumatism (known as ‘Heberden's nodes’), was the first to differentiate chickenpox and smallpox, and gave a classical account of night blindness. These papers were republished in his Commentarii de Morborum Historia et Curatione (1802; English translation, 1803), which includes a memoir by his son.