Sir John Eric Erichsen, 1st Baronet (19 July 1818 – 23 September 1896) was a Danish-born British surgeon.

[1]In 1844 Erichsen was secretary to the physiological section of the British Association, and in 1845 he was awarded the Fothergillian gold medal of the Royal Humane Society for his essay on asphyxia.

[2][1] Erichsen is inaccurately[5] credited with this statement from 1873: "There cannot always be fresh fields of conquest by the knife; there must be portions of the human frame that will ever remain sacred from its intrusions, at least in the surgeon's hands.

The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will be forever shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon."

"[6][7] The final sentence in the inaccurately quoted statement actually comes from a biography of Joseph Lister, written well after Erichsen died, in which the following sentence appears: "Mr. Erichsen believed that the abdomen, the brain, and the chest would be forever shut from the intrusions of a wise and humane surgeon.

"[8] Later writers falsely attributed these words by the biographer to Erichsen himself, but this attribution is inappropriate: the text in Erichsen's 1873 address immediately following the quoted sentences mentions surgical procedures "from the base of the brain to the lowest organ in the pelvic cavity" as "triumphs of the surgeon's art."

[9] Erichsen married Mary Elizabeth on 10 September 1842, eldest daughter of Captain Thomas Cole RN.