Nearly two hundred years ago, an English doctor drew his final breath inside his country home. It was not yet clear how history would remember him. For this was a man who had deliberately infected his patients with diseases, and whose pastimes included feeding human blood to his plants.

The great enemy of the British Empire, Napoleon Bonaparte, could be counted amongst his admirers. Thomas Jefferson asserted with presidential vigour that this was one doctor that 'mankind can never forget'.

But we have forgotten...