Sir Josiah Court (17 January 1841 – 8 February 1938) was an English

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

who determined the cause of miners'

nystagmus Nystagmus is a condition of involuntary (or voluntary, in some cases) Eye movement (sensory), eye movement. People can be born with it but more commonly acquire it in infancy or later in life. In many cases it may result in visual impairment, re ...

and was responsible for greatly reducing the incidence of the disease, which causes partial or total blindness.Obituary, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 9 February 1938 Court was born in

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

and educated at Warwick School in that town. He trained at Guy's Hospital and became Royal College of Surgeons of England, MRCS in 1863 and Royal College of Physicians of London, LRCP in 1864. He practised in Staveley, Derbyshire, and was consulting surgeon to the Derbyshire Miners' Union. It was here that he discovered that the nystagmus was caused by poor lighting in the coal mine, mines and persuaded the owners to install proper lighting to supplement the miners' lamps. He also worked on ankylostomiasis and published the influential book ''Miners' Diseases''. He unsuccessfully contested Derbyshire North East (UK Parliament constituency), Derbyshire North-East as a Conservative Party (UK), Unionist candidate six times. Court was Knight Bachelor, knighted in the 1920 New Year Honours for his services to miners.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Court, Josiah 1841 births 1938 deaths People from Warwick People educated at Warwick School 19th-century English medical doctors Knights Bachelor 20th-century English medical doctors