Ill 



the brain. He subsequently presented the College with a descriptive 

 account of the pathological collection of Dr. Matthew Baillie. He 

 became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1821 ; and at a subsequent 

 period received the Monthyon Medal from the Institute of France. 



Although Dr. Bright had occasionally suffered from illness for 

 several years, the final and fatal attack which was found to have 

 depended on an extensive ossification of the aortic valves was of 

 short duration. He first became seriously ill on the 1 1th of Decem- 

 ber, 1858, and on the 15th, at midnight, breathed his last. 



Dr. Bright's contributions to medical science are both numerous 

 and important. His c Reports of Medical Cases,' contained in two 

 royal quarto volumes, published in 1827 and 1831, embrace investi- 

 gations on diseases of the kidney, the lungs, and the brain and 

 nervous system, and on the pathology of fever. The plates of this 

 great work are all coloured ; they were executed under the author's 

 immediate superintendence, and are exquisite samples of the peculiar 

 art of representing faithfully and without exaggeration the morbid 

 appearance of tissues and organs. 



This celebrated work, rich as it is in the fruits of sagacious and 

 untiring research, by no means comprehends the whole of Dr. 

 Bright's published contributions to medical science. The volumes of 

 the ' Medico-Chirurgical Transactions,' from the 14th to the 22nd 

 inclusive (1828 1839), contain various papers from his pen; and 

 to the ' Guy's Hospital Reports,' from their commencement in 1836 

 up to 1843, the date of Dr. Bright's retirement from the Hospital, 

 he contributed no less than sixteen important memoirs. In the eighth 

 volume there is a paper " On Patients with Albuminous Urine," the 

 joint production of Drs. Bright, Barlow, and Rees, in the preface to 

 which (written by Dr. Bright) he thus calls attention to an important 

 innovation in clinical study : " The few following pages will be found 

 to contain the record of the first attempt which, as far as I know, has 

 yet been made in this country to turn the ample resources of an 

 hospital to the investigation of a particular disease, by bringing the 

 patients labouring under it into one ward properly arranged for 

 observation." 



Such were the numerous arid varied contributions to general 

 knowledge and to medical science made by Dr. Bright. No phy- 

 sician of the present day has, in our country, surpassed, perhaps 



