John Conolly (1794-1866), English physician. Conolly was born in Lincolnshire, and studied medicine at Edinburgh. He practiced in Sussex and at Stratford-on-Avon before becoming professor of the practice of medicine at University College London. In 1832 he founded a small medical association in order to disseminate good medical practice to the provinces. This was to become the British Medical Association. As resident physician to the Middlesex County Asylum, he removed all physical restraints from his patients, a principle that eventually became standard across the country. In 1852 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Civil Laws.