John Burdon-Sanderson

John Scott Burdon-Sanderson was an English physiologist born at Jesmond near Newcastle upon Tyne on 21 December 1828, and he died on 23 November 1905. He was educated in medicine at the University of Edinburgh and in Paris, then settled in London, where he served as Medical Officer of Health for Paddington and as physician to the Middlesex Hospital and the Brompton consumption hospitals. He investigated diphtheria, cattle plague and cholera outbreaks, and in 1871 reported that Penicillium inhibited the growth of bacteria, an observation that places him among the forerunners of Alexander Fleming. He held the Jodrell chair of physiology at University College London, became the first Waynflete Professor of Physiology at Oxford in 1882 despite fierce anti-vivisection opposition, and later served as Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford. He was created a baronet in 1899.