Arthur Ernest Sansom

Arthur Ernest Sansom FRCP (13 May 1838 in Corsham – 10 March 1907 in Bournemouth) was an English physician, known for his pioneering research on anaesthesiology, the use of carbolic acid in medicine, and diagnosis of heart disease.^[1]

Sansom was educated at Queenwood College near Stockbridge, Hampshire and then at King's College, London.^[2] He wrote one of the first and most practical handbooks on anaesthetics and read a paper Anaesthetics in Obstetric Practice before the Obstetrical Society. In 1869–1870 he emphasized the importance of Pasteur's research, together with some research of his own, in a series a papers he presented to the Medical Society of London. He was consulting physician to the London Hospital and to the North-Eastern Hospital for Children.^[1] Sansom was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1878. He was President of the Medical Society of London for the year 1897.

In a number of his published Obituaries in 1907, the final sentence states that - ‘He was survived by his wife and six children’. This was incorrect, as at his death seven legitimate children survived him.

His burial was at East Finchley Cemetery.[3] 

• Sansom, Arthur Ernest (1865). Chloroform: its action and administration. A handbook.
• Arrest and prevention of cholera. 1866.
• On the pain of parturition, and anæsthetics in obstetric practice. 1869.
• Sansom, Arthur Ernest (1871). The antiseptic system.
• The physical diagnosis of diseases of the heart and thoracic aorta. 1876.