ABSTRACT
In 1826, Gideon Algernon Mantell intervened in the case of Hannah Russell who was accused of plotting and committing the murder of her husband, Benjamin Russell. Mantell became a well-respected figure in Lewes, being both a parish doctor and army surgeon at Ringmer Hospital. The latter role was despite voicing opposition to military floggings. Mantell’s interest in fossils was further cemented after a meeting in Hoxton Square in 1811 with James Parkinson who as well as being a general practitioner with an interest in neurology was also a keen palaeontologist. In 1822, Mantell was involved in a famous discovery in the Tilgate Forrest, Sussex. Mantell, however, noted a resemblance between an iguana jaw bone skeleton in the Hunterian Museum and his discovery, naming the creature Iguanodon. Mantell had an illustrious palaeontological career alongside his medical one. He published 67 books and described the dinosaur reptiles Hylaeosaurus, Pelorosaurus, and Regnosaurus, and Triassic reptile Telerpeton elginense.
