James Bower Harrison 1814-1890

James Bower Harrison was an influential figure in the medical profession in mid-Victorian Manchester. He was born in 1814, the son of a Unitarian minister. He was a medical apprentice at RMI, and later worked there as a physician's clerk. Harrison was also a surgeon at the Ancoats and Ardwick Dispensary. He received the MD from St Andrew's University in 1856, and was the author of a number of medical studies including, Popular medical errors (1851), Medical aspects of death and of the human mind (1852), and On the contamination of water by lead (1852). Harrison had an extensive private practice.

It is evident that Bosdin Leech acquired the private papers of Harrison. These consisted mostly of correspondence, the majority of which Leech redistributed to the files of the authors of the letters. The items have been retained in these files, and a decision has been made not to reconstitute the papers of Harrison as a discrete fonds.