Thomas Lauder Brunton. 



x]vii 



producing excellent papers : on strychnin, caffein, aconite, the nitrites, and so 

 on. In 1867 Brunton made one of the most beneficent discoveries ever 

 achieved in the cure of disease, namely, the relief of angina 'pectoris by the 

 nitrites (nitrite of amyl : a discovery deserving to rank with that of Peruvian 

 bark in the cure of ague). To have discovered the means of controlling one of 

 the cruellest ills to which man is subject is, perhaps, amid many memorials, 

 that which the author would have prized above all the rewards of his labours. 



It is true that his conclusion, that angina is primarily a disease of high 

 blood-pressure, was incorrect, and the sphygmographie tracings on which he 

 based this conclusion showed only that the sphygmograph is not an instru- 

 ment capable of interpreting pressures, nor even delicate enough to get 

 closely into touch with the finer motions of the pulse. His famous discovery 

 has, therefore, been called a lucky shot, but such hits are made only by 

 persons who have profoundly studied the conditions. 



In 1897 Brunton published his ' Lectures on the Action of Medicines,' a 

 work as practical in teaching as delightful to read. As an earnest and kindly 

 physician, in this work, as in his hospital and private practice, he was never 

 drily academic, but kept ever before him the means, empirical as they might 

 be, of bringing medical aid to his patients. If the author were thus disposed 

 to put too strong a faith in drugs as remedies, we should be the last to blame 

 him for so generous an enthusiasm. 



This work was followed by the 'Disorders of Assimilation' (1901) and the 

 ' Therapeutics of the Circulation.' In 1885 he had delivered the Lettsomian 

 Lectures on ' Disorders of the Digestion,' published in 1886. As in pharma- 

 cology, so in nutrition, secretion, and excretion, Brunton was a pioneer. He 

 set on foot much of the recent work on ferments and enzymes, on processes of 

 digestion and assimilation, and even on the organotherapy and immunity 

 investigations which are now in the forefront of research. Concerning this 

 part of his work, reference may be made to his Address to the International 

 Congress of Medicine at Moscow in 1897. But to enumerate all Brunton's 

 contributions to the science and art of Medicine would be a long task. 

 Versed in many subjects of clinical and therapeutical interest, and a 

 prodigious worker, his books, reports, and essays were not only numerous, 

 but were republished and re-embodied in many shapes. They were principally 

 concerned with gastric and cardiac problems, for the most part of much 

 practical value ; and, in later life, with public health, such, for example, as 

 the effects of exercise and stress on the heart, the need of physical education, 

 of public hygiene, and so forth. He served also on the Commission of 1886, 

 which reported on Pasteur's treatment of hydrophobia. 



In the episode in his career known as the Hyderabad Commission (1889) 

 Brunton was less successful. The whole affair was too brief, too hurried. 

 It is true that in chloroform poisoning the respiration is affected, but 

 this is a subsidiary hazard, and one readily countered by artificial respiration. 

 The effect upon the heart is the chief peril, as was finally proved in the 

 Cambridge Physiological Laboratory, in the presence of Lieut.-Colonel Lawrie 



