Ernest Hart: Editor of the British Medical Journal 1866–1898

Abstract

Ernest Abraham Hart (26 June 1835–7 January 1898) was the long-time editor of the British Medical Journal. He held strong opinions, and was often controversial but his views generally prevailed. He was born into a Jewish family in London and was educated at the City of London School. He studied medicine at the St George’s Hospital School of Medicine and specialised in diseases of the eye. His medical journalism began with The Lancet in 1857 and in August 1866, he was appointed editor of the British Medical Journal taking it, in his decades of leadership, from a small publication to a significant scientific journal increasing the British Medical Association membership substantially. Julia Frankau's novel of scandal, Dr Phillips: A Maida Vale Idyll (1887) published under the pseudonym of Frank Danby, has a leading character, Dr Phillips, thought to be modelled on Ernest Hart and who murders his wife reviving speculation about the death of Hart's first wife from accidental poisoning.