Sir Edward Henry Sieveking (1816–1904) was born of German parents in England, and educated in both countries. After graduating in 1841 he spent a year visiting continental medical schools, followed by four years practising medicine amongst the English colony in Hamburg. In 1847 Sieveking settled in London and became assistant physician to St Mary’s Hospital, and physician to the London Lock Hospital and the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic. In 1858 Sieveking invented the aesthesiometer, an instrument for testing the sensation on the skin, and in the same year he published his most important work, 'On Epilepsy and Epileptiform Seizures, their Causes, Pathology, and Treatment' (2nd edition, 1861). He became physician-extraordinary and physician-in-ordinary to both Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales, as well as vice-president of the Royal College of Physicians, London.