Thomas Morison Legge

Sir Thomas Morison Legge CBE[1] (6 January 1863 – 7 May 1932) was a British physician who served as medical inspector to improve industrial hygiene.[2]

Thomas Morison Legge, photograph by Graystone Bird

Legge was born in Hong Kong, the son of Scottish Chinese-language scholar James Legge and his second wife, Hannah Mary Johnstone. He was educated at Magdalen College School and Trinity College, Oxford, earning a degree in medicine in 1886. He was the first Medical Inspector of Factories and Workshops in the United Kingdom, appointed in 1898[3][4][5] and resigning on 29 November 1926.[6] He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1918 and knighted in the 1925 New Year Honours.[7] His work was especially concerned with anthrax and lead poisoning.[8]

Legge's axioms,[9] which he expounded in 1929,[10] are "famous".[11] They include the following:

  1. Unless and until the employer has done everything — and everything means a good deal — the workman can do next to nothing to protect himself although he is naturally willing enough to do his bit.
  2. If you can bring an influence to bear external to the workman (i.e. one over which he can exercise no control), you will be successful; and if you can't or don't, you won't.
  3. Practically all industrial lead poisoning is due to the inhalation of dust and fumes; and if you stop their inhalation you will stop the poisoning.
  4. All workmen should be told something of the danger of the materials they come into contact with and not be left to find it out for themselves — sometimes at the cost of their lives.[12][13]

References
  • "Thomas Morison Legge (1863-1932): the first medical factory inspector". Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  1. "Legge, Sir Thomas Morison", Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2015; online edition, Oxford University Press, April 2014.
  2. "Obituary: Sir Thomas Legge – Work for Industrial Hygiene". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 9 May 1932. p. 9.
  3. Thomas Morison Legge (1863–1932): The First Medical Factory Inspector. 2004. Journal of Medical Biography. Volume 12. Page 209. Sage Journals PubMed
  4. London Gazette. 1898. Page 4773. Google Books.
  5. Gleanings and Memoranda: A Monthly Record of Political Events and Current Political Literature. 1898. Volume 11. Page 143. Google Books.
  6. P. W. J. Bartrip, "Legge, Sir Thomas Morison (1863–1932)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, September 2010.
  7. Edinburgh Gazette. 2 January 1925. p 2.
  8. "Thomas Legge" in Memoirs and Proceedings. Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. 1946. Volumes 87-89. Google Books.
  9. Antony John Essex-Cater. A Synopsis of Public Health and Social Medicine. Wright. 1967. Page 316. Google Books
  10. Proceedings of the XIVth International Congress of Occupational Health. 1964. Page 228. Google Books: .
  11. Benjamin Frank Miller. The Complete Medical Guide. Simon and Schuster. 1967. Page 145. Google Books.
  12. Thomas Morrison Legge. "Thirty Years' Experience of Industrial Maladies". Shaw Lectures. Royal Society of Arts. February 1929. Chemical News and Journal of Industrial Science. 1929. Volumes 139-140. Page 169. Google Books.
  13. Thomas Morison Legge. Lessons learnt from Industrial Gases and Fumes. Institute of Chemistry. 1930. Page 6. Google Books.
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