Medical journalist, sanitary reformer. Educated at City of London School; his prize school essay printed in Three Essays on ... King Lear. By Pupils of the City of London School, 1851. Studied medicine at St. George's Hospital. M.R.C.S. 1856. Ophthalmic surgeon at St. Mary's Hospital, 1863-1868; held also other important professional appointments. President of Harveian Society, 1868. Hon. D.C.L. University of Durham, 1893. Individually, and as chairman of various organizations, worked for improvement of working conditions of naval and military medical officers, for enactment of measures to prevent spread of disease, for medical care of the sick poor, for protection of infants subjected to baby farming, and other reforms. Adviser to George Smith of Smith, Elder & Co. on the firm's publication of medical works. On staff of Lancet; edited British Medical Journal, 1867-1897 (except for one year). Wrote for medical journals; also occasionally for general periodicals, e.g., Fortnightly, Nineteenth Century. Published addresses on matters of health and sanitation; books on medical subjects. 

Hart began contributing to H.W. at age eighteen. Dickens later became acquainted with him, apparently, through their common interest in the welfare of the poor. In a letter to Hart, Feb. 1866, concerning a meeting of the Association for the Improvement of the Infirmaries of the London Workhouses, of which Hart was secretary, Dickens referred to Hart's having "manfully" called attention to the deplorable conditions in workhouse infirmaries.

Author: Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography