Richard Bright—A Man of Many Parts

Dr Richard Bright, the father of modern renal medicine, was born 200 years ago this year at 29 Queen Square, Bristol. The great medical triumvirate of Guy's Hospital in the 19th century Hodgkin, Addison and Bright have been immortalised by the attachment of eponyms to the diseases they decribed; however Bright although perhaps the most accomplished of the three, is less well remembered today. Many excellent accounts of his life and works have been published (1,2, 3, 4, 5), including a biography by his great great niece, Miss Pamela Bright (6); in addition Dr Robert Kark (7) gave the FitzPatrick lecture to the Royal College of Physicians, London, in 1983 which was dedicated to Bright's memory. It is, nevertheless, appropriate, in his bicentenary year to look again at the life of this extraordinary man who always retained an association with Bristol through visits to his beloved family home at Ham Green. His was born into a golden age of invention, of science, and of great literary, musical and artistic achievement; it was also a period of deep social unrest. The year of his birth saw the outbreak of revolution in France and the acceptance by the king of the Declaration of the Rights of Man heralding great hopes for a brighter future. Wordsworth encapsulates the