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The eminent physiologist, Robert Bentley Todd (1809-1860), was
instrumental in setting up King's College Hospital. Todd was born
in Dublin, the son of a distinguished Irish surgeon, and underwent
his early training at Trinity College before relocating to London
in 1831. He lectured at the Aldersgate School of Medicine and Westminster
Hospital before study at Pembroke College, Oxford. Todd then toured
France, Belgium and Holland before receiving, in 1833, his licence
from the College of Physicians. He was appointed Professor of Physiology
and Morbid Anatomy at King's College in 1836, in which position
he was a distinguished advocate of the reform of medical education,
in particular of nursing, helping to found the St John's House training
institution in 1848. Todd played a key role in establishing King's
College Hospital, which opened in 1840, and remained as a clinical
lecturer there until shortly before his death. His contributions
to medical science were considerable, not least in understanding
the physiology of the brain, and owing to his editorship of the
seminal, Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology, published
between 1835 and 1859. He died in 1860.
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