Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Basham, William Richard
BASHAM, WILLIAM RICHARD, M.D. (1804–1877), physician, was born at Diss. He was at first placed in a banking house, but, preferring the medical profession, he entered as a student at Westminster Hospital in 1831. In 1833 he went to Edinburgh, and took his M.D. degree in the following year. After this he made a voyage to China, where, in a skirmish on the Canton river, he received a wound in the leg. In 1843 he was appointed physician to the Westminster Hospital, and he devoted himself to the school, giving lectures on medicine until 1871. He directed his attention especially to the study of dropsy and renal disease, and he wrote much that was original and important in connection with these subjects. Of great physical energy and robust frame, he was a physician of much culture, skilled in chemistry and botany, and an excellent artist, the illustrations in his works being furnished by his own pencil.
He was the author of the following works: 1. ‘On Dropsy,’ 1858. 2. ‘On Renal Diseases,’ 1870. 3. ‘Aids to the Diagnosis of Diseases of the Kidney,’ 1872.
[Lancet, October 1877.]