Background
Richard Bright was born on September 28, 1789, in Bristol, England, the third son of Richard Bright, Sr., a wealthy merchant, and banker, and Sarah Heywood.
University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, United Kingdom
In 1808, Richard Bright joined the University of Edinburgh to study philosophy, economics and mathematics, but switched to medicine the following year. In 1810, he accompanied Sir George Mackenzie on a summer expedition to Iceland where he conducted naturalist studies. Bright then continued his medical studies at Guy's Hospital in London and in September 1813 returned to Edinburgh to be granted his medical doctorate.
University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, United Kingdom
In 1808, Richard Bright joined the University of Edinburgh to study philosophy, economics and mathematics, but switched to medicine the following year. In 1810, he accompanied Sir George Mackenzie on a summer expedition to Iceland where he conducted naturalist studies. Bright then continued his medical studies at Guy's Hospital in London and in September 1813 returned to Edinburgh to be granted his medical doctorate.
Royal College of Physicians, 11 Saint Andrews Place Regent's Park, London NW1 4LE, United Kingdom
By 1816, Richard Bright became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians.
St. James's Church, 197 Piccadilly, St. James's, London W1J 9LL, United Kingdom
A memorial to Richard Bright in St. James's Church, Piccadilly.
Richard Bright was born on September 28, 1789, in Bristol, England, the third son of Richard Bright, Sr., a wealthy merchant, and banker, and Sarah Heywood.
Bright was educated at Exeter, matriculated in Edinburgh University in 1808, and began his medical studies there the following year. In 1810 he joined George Mackenzie on a trip to Iceland and contributed a chapter on botany and zoology to Mackenzie's Travels in Iceland (1811). Two years of training in clinical medicine at Guy's Hospital in London followed, and then he returned to Edinburgh, where he received his medical degree in 1813.
By 1816, Bright became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. He also studied in Berlin and in Vienna and first became known for his travelog, Travels from Vienna (1818), which contained his own illustrations.
In 1816 Bright became an assistant physician at the London Fever Hospital. Four years later he was appointed assistant physician at Guy's Hospital and opened a private practice at the same time. He became a full physician at Guy's Hospital in 1824, eventually retiring from his post in 1843 to devote himself to private practice. In 1837, Bright also served as physician extraordinary to Queen Victoria.
As a student at Guy's Hospital, one of the world's foremost medical schools, Bright was exposed to the best teaching available. He was impressed with the importance of careful descriptions of the disease. His instructors also emphasized the need for correlating clinical observations with gross pathological changes of specific organs after death. A reaction to the theoretical systems which had flourished in the previous century, this approach provided the first sound basis for diagnosis and a modern concept of disease; it contributed little to treatment.
In the first volume of Reports of Medical Cases (1827) Bright related dropsy with albuminuria with changes in the kidney and differentiated it from excess accumulation of fluid in cases with heart or liver disease. Although others had demonstrated earlier the presence of albumin in the urine of some patients with dropsy, Bright was the first to relate its presence to kidney pathology. What he described was chronic nephritis, later known as Bright's disease. A collaborative study of 100 cases in 1842, for which two wards and a laboratory were specially set aside, confirmed his thesis. The second volume of Reports (1831) dealt with diseases of the nervous system. Bright also published on other diseases, such as acute yellow atrophy of the liver.
Well-liked as a teacher and much sought after as a consultant, Bright devoted most of his later years to private practice.
Richard Bright was a member of the Royal Society and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
In 1822, Richard Bright married Martha Lyndon Babington. Martha died in 1823, shortly after giving birth to their only son, who died in early manhood.
His second marriage was to Elizabeth Follett, sister of Sir William Webb Follett, attorney general. Bright had five surviving children, two daughters and three sons.