Benjamin Moseley (1742–1819) was an English physician and medical writer. Born in Essex in 1742, he trained in medicine in London, Paris, and Leiden before settling into practice in Jamaica in 1768, where he was appointed surgeon-general. Having made his fortune there, he returned to England, took an M.D. at St. Andrews in 1784, and was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1787. In 1788 he was made physician to the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, and later served as physician to the households of the Dukes of York and Clarence. As an author, Moseley's reputation rests on works drawn from his years in the West Indies. His first book, A Treatise concerning the Properties and Effects of Coffee (1775), was followed by his most significant work, A Treatise on Tropical Diseases and on the Climate of the West Indies (1787), a study substantial enough to be translated into German and to reach a fourth edition by 1803. He also published A Treatise on Sugar (1799). Later in life he became notorious as one of the earliest and most vocal medical opponents of smallpox vaccination, attacking Edward Jenner's cowpox-based inoculation in a series of pamphlets and journal articles from 1799 onward, arguing against its safety and efficacy.
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