Sir Thomas Morison Legge

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

Who Was Who ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It has been published annually in the form of a hardback book since 1849, and has been published online since 1999. It has also been published on CD-ROM. It lists, and gives information on, people from around ...

, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2015; online edition, Oxford University Press, April 2014. (6 January 1863 – 7 May 1932) was a British physician who served as medical inspector to improve industrial hygiene.

Life

Legge was born in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, the son of Scottish Chinese-language scholar

James Legge James Legge (; 20 December 181529 November 1897) was a Scottish linguist, missionary, sinologist, and translator who was best known as an early translator of Classical Chinese texts into English. Legge served as a representative of the Lond ...

and his second wife, Hannah Mary Johnstone. He was educated at Magdalen College School. Legge matriculated at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in 1882 as a non-college student. He graduated B.A. at

Trinity College, Oxford Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...

in 1886. He became a medical student at

St Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 by Rahere, and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by ...

in London, and graduated M.B. and B.Ch. in 1890, D.Ph. at Cambridge in 1893, and M.D. at Oxford in 1894. Appointed in 1898, Legge was the first Medical Inspector of Factories and Workshops in the United Kingdom. He resigned the post on 29 November 1926.

Awards and honours

Legge was appointed Commander of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in 1918 and knighted in the 1925 New Year Honours. He was awarded the Bisset Hawkins Medal of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...

in 1923.

Work

Legge's work was especially concerned with

anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Bacillus anthracis'' or ''Bacillus cereus'' biovar ''anthracis''. Infection typically occurs by contact with the skin, inhalation, or intestinal absorption. Symptom onset occurs between one ...

and

lead poisoning Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, infertility, numbness and paresthesia, t ...

. Legge's axioms, which he expounded in 1929, are "famous". They include the following: # ''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 share.'' # ''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.'' # ''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.'' # ''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.''Thomas Morison Legge. Lessons learnt from Industrial Gases and Fumes. Institute of Chemistry. 1930. Page 6
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References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Legge, Thomas Morison 1863 births 1932 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford 19th-century English medical doctors 20th-century English medical doctors Knights Bachelor Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Health and safety in the United Kingdom Factory inspectors People from British Hong Kong