Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Ringer, Sydney
RINGER, SYDNEY (1835–1910), physician, born at Norwich in 1835, was second son of John M. Ringer, a Norwich tradesman, who died when his children were very young, by his wife Harriet. His two brothers became successful merchants in the East. Ringer, whose simple and retiring disposition always bore the impress of severely nonconformist training in youth, began his medical education as an apprentice in Norwich, and soon after entered the medical faculty of University College in 1854, graduating M.B.London in 1860 and M.D. in 1863. He became M.R.C.P. in 1863 and in 1870 F.R.C.P. After being resident medical officer for two years (1861–2) he was appointed assistant physician to University College Hospital in 1863, physician in 1865. and consulting physician in 1900. From 1864 to 1869 he was assistant physician to the Hospital for Sick Children. At University College he was successively professor of materia medica, pharmacology, and therapeutics (1862–78), professor of the principles and practice of medicine (1878–87), and Holme professor of clinical medicine (1887–1900).
Ringer was pre-eminent in two fields of work, namely clinical medicine and physiological research; at the outset of his career he confined his energies to medicine, but when his position as a physician was established his interest in physiological problems awakened, and for thirty years he worked incessantly at them both. He was an admirable clinical teacher and physician, but was more widely known as the author of 'A Handbook of Therapeutics' (1869), which reached its 13th edition in 1897. His experimental work covered a large area, some of the most important researches being into the influence of organic salts, especially calcium, on the circulation and beat of the heart; 'Ringer's solution' is widely known in connection with experiments on animals' hearts. He was also author of 'The Temperature of the Body as a Means of Diagnosis of Phthisis, Measles, and Tuberculosis' (1865; 2nd edit. 1873), of articles on parotitis, measles, and sudamina in Reynolds's 'System of Medicine' (vol. i. 1886), and of numerous papers in the 'Journal of Physiology.'
He was elected F.R.S. in 1885, and was an honorary member of the New York Medical Society and a corresponding member of the Academy of Medicine of Paris. He died of apoplexy on 14 Oct. 1910 at Lastingham, Yorkshire, and was buried there. He married Ann, daughter of Henry Darley of Aldby Park near York, and had issue two daughters.
[Brit. Med. Journ. 1910, ii. 1384; Proc. Roy. Soc. 84 A; private information.]