Ernest Abraham Hart

Ernest Abraham Hart (26 June 18357 January 1898) was an English surgeon and medical journalist. He was the editor of The British Medical Journal.

Biography

Hart was born in London, the son of a Jewish dentist. He was educated at the City of London School, and became a student at St George's Hospital. In 1856, he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, making a specialty of diseases of the eye. He was appointed ophthalmic surgeon at St Mary's Hospital, London at the age of 28, and occupied various other posts, introducing into ophthalmic practice some modifications since widely adopted. His name, too, is associated with a method of treating popliteal aneurysm, which he was the first to use in Great Britain.

His real-life work, however, was as a medical journalist, beginning with the Lancet in 1857. He was appointed editor of the British Medical Journal on 11 August 1866.

His work on behalf of the British Medical Association is shown by the increase from 2,000 to 19,000 in the number of members, and the growth of the British Medical Journal from 20 to 64 pages, during his editorship. From 1872 to 1897 he was chairman of the Association's Parliamentary Bill Committee.

Selected publications An account of the condition of the infirmaries of London workhouses, 1866 The Truth About Vaccination: An Examination and Refutation of the Assertions of the Anti-Vaccinators (1880) Hypnotism, Mesmerism and the New Witchcraft (1896)

Personal life Hart married his first wife, Rosetta Levy, in 1855. He married his second wife, Alice Marion Rowland, in 1872, the sister of social reformer Henrietta Barnett. Rowland had herself studied medicine in London and Paris, and was no less interested than her husband in philanthropic reform. She was most active in her encouragement of Irish cottage industries, and was the founder of the Donegal Industrial Fund. In 1891 he travelled to Japan with his second wife, Alice Hart.