Thomas Morison Legge

Sir Thomas Morison Legge CBE[1] (6 January 1863 – 7 May 1932) was a British physician who served as medical inspector to improve industrial hygiene.[2]

Thomas Morison Legge, photograph by Graystone Bird

Life

Legge was born in Hong Kong, the son of Scottish Chinese-language scholar James Legge and his second wife, Hannah Mary Johnstone. He was educated at Magdalen College School.

Legge matriculated at the University of Oxford in 1882 as a non-college student. He graduated B.A. at Trinity College, Oxford in 1886.[3] He became a medical student at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, and graduated M.B. and B.Ch. in 1890, D.Ph. at Cambridge in 1893, and M.D. at Oxford in 1894.[4]

Appointed in 1898, Legge was the first Medical Inspector of Factories and Workshops in the United Kingdom.[5][6][7] He resigned the post on 29 November 1926.[4]

Awards and honours

Legge was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1918 and knighted in the 1925 New Year Honours.[8] He was awarded the Bisset Hawkins Medal of the Royal College of Physicians in 1923.[4]

Work

Legge's work was especially concerned with anthrax and lead poisoning.[9]

Legge's axioms,[10] which he expounded in 1929,[11] are "famous".[12] They include the following:

  1. Unless and until the employer has done everything — and everything means a good deal — the workman can do next to nothing to protect himself although he is naturally willing enough to do his bit.
  2. If you can bring an influence to bear external to the workman (i.e. one over which he can exercise no control), you will be successful; and if you can't or don't, you won't.
  3. Practically all industrial lead poisoning is due to the inhalation of dust and fumes; and if you stop their inhalation you will stop the poisoning.
  4. All workmen should be told something of the danger of the materials they come into contact with and not be left to find it out for themselves — sometimes at the cost of their lives.[13][14]

References
  • "Thomas Morison Legge (1863-1932): the first medical factory inspector". Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  1. "Legge, Sir Thomas Morison", Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2015; online edition, Oxford University Press, April 2014.
  2. "Obituary: Sir Thomas Legge – Work for Industrial Hygiene". The Times. 9 May 1932. p. 9.
  3. Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Legge, Thomas Morison" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  4. Bartrip, P. W. J. "Legge, Sir Thomas Morison (1863–1932)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49286. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. Thomas Morison Legge (1863–1932): The First Medical Factory Inspector. 2004. Journal of Medical Biography. Volume 12. Page 209. Sage Journals PubMed
  6. London Gazette. 1898. Page 4773. Google Books.
  7. Gleanings and Memoranda: A Monthly Record of Political Events and Current Political Literature. 1898. Volume 11. Page 143. Google Books.
  8. Edinburgh Gazette. 2 January 1925. p 2.
  9. "Thomas Legge" in Memoirs and Proceedings. Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. 1946. Volumes 87-89. Google Books.
  10. Antony John Essex-Cater. A Synopsis of Public Health and Social Medicine. Wright. 1967. Page 316. Google Books
  11. Proceedings of the XIVth International Congress of Occupational Health. 1964. Page 228. Google Books: .
  12. Benjamin Frank Miller. The Complete Medical Guide. Simon and Schuster. 1967. Page 145. Google Books.
  13. Thomas Morrison Legge. "Thirty Years' Experience of Industrial Maladies". Shaw Lectures. Royal Society of Arts. February 1929. Chemical News and Journal of Industrial Science. 1929. Volumes 139-140. Page 169. Google Books.
  14. Thomas Morison Legge. Lessons learnt from Industrial Gases and Fumes. Institute of Chemistry. 1930. Page 6. Google Books.
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