xlvi Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



the chemistry of the blood, and of digestion.* Thence he went to Leipsic, and 

 was one of the first students in Carl Ludwig's new institute.f Here it was 

 that he began his admirable researches on the nitrites.^ and his lifelong 

 friendship with Kronecker. 



In 1871 Brunton settled in London and, after a short term at the Middlesex 

 Hospital, was appointed Lecturer on Materia Medica, and Casualty Physician, 

 at St. Bartholomew's. There in a small scullery he began his experimental 

 work in England, some excellent part of it with Fayrer on snake venoms. 

 In this den, and afterwards in the pharmacological laboratory of the new 

 buildings occupied in 1881, he trained pupils and assistants, some of whom 

 afterwards attained professorial rank. As his private practice increased, 

 Brunton was less and less able to work out his problems personally ; having 

 laid down the lines of a research he was obliged to leave the elaboration to 

 others. Hence perhaps arose some lack of grip, and a reliance rather upon 

 his highly cultivated intuition than upon patient verification ; a bent some- 

 times noticeable also in his clinical work. When he had formed a vivid idea 

 of a certain process it was sometimes difficult by argument, or even by 

 demonstration, to alter his point of view. But, on the other hand, it was by 

 the aid of this imaginative quality that he did what he did ; it was by its 

 light that he saw the new pharmacology, made it for Great Britain, and 

 presented the great gift to his own and to later generations. Moreover it is 

 fair to add that at times, when some absorbing research was on foot, Brunton 

 would leave his large practice, even for weeks, to work with his assistants. 



In 1874, at the early age of 30, Brunton was elected Fellow of this Society 

 (Councillor, 1882-4 and 1905-6 ; Vice-President, 1905-6) ; and in his earlier 

 days devoted much time and pains to its interests. The Fellowship of the 

 Eoyal College of Physicians was conferred upon him in 1876 : and from other 

 medical and scientific bodies and universities he received many distinctions. 

 While indeed he was still a comparatively unknown man he was, in obedience 

 to the last wishes of Dr. Anstie, appointed Editor of ' The Practitioner.' 



In 1885 appeared the first of many editions of the ' Textbook of 

 Pharmacology and Therapeutics ' : his magnum opus, the first complete 

 treatise on physiological pharmacology ; it was the summation of 15 years' 

 work and of notes more than once rewritten and of facts re-verified. In 

 lucidity, grasp, and accuracy it stood far before Einger's book, great as is our 

 debt to Einger. It contained also a full bibliography, at that time invaluable, 

 for no one so well as Brunton knew what was doing and had been done in 

 his branch of science, and none could so precisely balance the relative values 

 of the results of the several investigators. And meanwhile he was himself 



* See Burdon Sanderson's ' Handbook for the Physiol. Laby.,' which contains many 

 useful descriptions by Brunton of experimental method. 



t For these dates and places and other records the writer is much indebted to the 

 Obituary Notice in the 'Brit. Med. Jour.,' September 23, 1916; as also for kind 

 assistance to Mrs. Henry, Prof. Bayliss and Prof. Cushny. 



\ ' Journ. Anat. and Physiol.,' 1871, vol. 5, p. 92. 



