Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Letheby, Henry
LETHEBY, HENRY (1816–1876), analytical chemist, was born at Plymouth in 1816. He graduated M.B. at London University in 1842, and was also L.S.A. (1837) and Ph.D. He was lecturer on chemistry at the London Hospital, and for some years medical officer of health and analyst of foods for the city of London. He was also appointed chief examiner of gas for the metropolis under the board of trade. Letheby was an exceedingly accurate technological chemist, and contributed many papers to the ‘Lancet’ and other scientific periodicals. He was a fellow of the Linnean and Chemical Societies. He died on 28 March 1876 at his residence, 17 Sussex Place, Regent's Park, London. He left a widow. Letheby's chief work was a treatise on ‘Food, its Varieties, Chemical Composition, &c.,’ London, 1870, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1872. His official reports on the sanitary condition of London were published from time to time.
[Times, 30 March 1876; Medical Register for 1876 and 1877; Analyst, 1876, p. 15; Chemical News, 1876, p. 146; Public Health, 1876, p. 218; Med. Times and Gazette, 1876, p. 447; Men of the Reign.]