Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bryson, Alexander
BRYSON, ALEXANDER, M.D. (1802–1869), medical writer, began his professional studies at Edinburgh and continued them at Glasgow, where he took his doctor's degree and was admitted a member of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons. He also became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London. He entered the navy as assistant-surgeon in 1827, and was promoted to the rank of surgeon in 1836, deputy inspector-general in 1854, and inspector-general in 1855. In January 1864, on the retirement of Sir John Liddell, he was appointed director-general of the medical department of the navy, from which post he retired on 15 April 1869. He was appointed honorary physician to the queen in 1859, and subsequently hs was made a companion of the order of the Bath. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society. His death took place at Barnes, Surrey, on 12 Dec. 1869. He was the author of a treatise on ‘The Climate and Diseases of the African Station,’ and of ‘An Account of the Origin, Spread, and Decline of the Epidemic levers of Sierra Leone,' London, 1849, 8vo. For a long time he was the head of the department of naval medical statistics, and he compiled the ‘Statistical Reports on the Health of the Navy.’ He also contributed a valuable article ‘On Medicine and Medical Statistics’ to the ‘Admiralty Manual of Scientific Enquiry.'
[Lancet, 18 Dec. 1869, p. 860; British Medical Journal, 18 Dec, 1869, p. 670; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Times, 15 Dec. 1869.]