Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bright, John (1783-1870)
BRIGHT, JOHN (1783–1870), physician, was born in Derbyshire, and educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. 1801, and M.D. 1808. He at first practised in Birmingham, and was appointed physician to the General Hospital in 1810, but before long he removed to London. He was elected fellow of the College of Physicians in 1809, was several times censor, and was Harveian orator in 1830. From 1822 to 1843 he was physician to the Westminster Hospital. In 1836 he was appointed lord chancellor's adviser in lunacy, to which office he almost entirely limited himself for many years. He never practised extensively, having an ample private fortune. 'He was,' says the 'Lancet,' 'a most accomplished classical scholar, and may be said to have represented that old school of physicians whose veneration for Greek and Latin certainly exceeded their estimation of modern pathological research, and who valued an elegant and scholarly prescription before the most searching post-mortem report.' He died 1 Feb. 1870, aged 87.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. (1878), iii. 79; Lancet, obit, notice, 12 Feb. 1870.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.37
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 333 | ii | 28 | Bright, John (1783-1870): after Hospital insert From 1828 to 1845 he was a commissioner in lunacy |