Thomas Hodgkin: social activist.
Thomas Hodgkin's discovery of a lymph gland disorder is merely one event in a life of unusually varied public activities in the social reform and humanitarian movements of the mid-19th century. He wrote pamphlets on medical care for the working-class poor, public health, housing, sanitation, and the relief of cold, hunger, and unemployment. Hodgkin wrote about the problems arising from urban renewal and suburban development. His contributions to geographic explorations, anthropology, ethnology, and foreign affairs are virtually unknown today. Hodgkin's opposition to slavery and the slave trade involved him in the development of settlements in Africa for freed slaves and disputes with the abolitionists in America. He fought for social justice and human rights for native populations being oppressed by British foreign policy in South Africa and New Zealand. His criticism of the exploitation of Indians by the Hudson's Bay Company's fur trade contributed to a professional conflict in the highly politicized environment of Guy's Hospital and blocked advancement of his medical career. Closer to home he advocated reform of medical education and practice and sponsored adult education programs. As a member of its Senate, he helped in establishing London University, the first nonsectarian institution of higher learning in England. He lectured to working people on the means of preserving and promoting health and advocated prepaid medical care for the working poor. Concerned about unequal distribution of medical care, he opposed medical contracts to the lowest bidder and price-determined government plans for health care. He consistently maintained that the basic problems of the poor were not medical but socioeconomic. Since charity leaves nothing behind in exchange, Hodgkin was certain that greater benefits would result if charitable money was used to provide jobs. He denounced the evils of tobacco, practices of trade unions, and barbarous prize fights. On a trip to Jerusalem with Sir Moses Montefiore in 1866, Hodgkin contracted dysentery and died. He is buried in a protestant cemetery in Jaffa. His epitaph is fitting: "Nothing human was alien to him."
Rosenfeld
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Department of Pathology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
D004739:England; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006806:Human Rights / Q000266:history; D006801:Humans; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000266:history*; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012946:Social Welfare / Q000266:history*