Golding Bird

Golding Bird (9 December 1814 – 27 October 1854) was a British medical doctor and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He became a great authority on kidney diseases and published a comprehensive paper on urinary deposits in 1844. He was also notable for his work in related sciences, especially the medical uses of electricity and electrochemistry. From 1836, he lectured at Guy's Hospital, a well-known teaching hospital in London and now part of King's College London, and published a popular textbook on science for medical students called Elements of Natural Philosophy. Having developed an interest in chemistry while still a child, largely through self-study, Bird was far enough advanced to deliver lectures to his fellow pupils at school. He later applied this knowledge to medicine and did much research on the chemistry of urine and of kidney stones. In 1842, he was the first to describe oxaluria, a condition which leads to the formation of a particular kind of stone. Bird, who was a member of the London Electrical Society, was innovative in the field of the medical use of electricity, designing much of his own equipment. In his time, electrical treatment had acquired a bad name in the medical profession through its widespread use by quack practitioners. Bird made efforts to oppose this quackery, and was instrumental in bringing medical electrotherapy into the mainstream. He was quick to adopt new instruments of all kinds; he invented a new variant of the Daniell cell in 1837 and made important discoveries in electrometallurgy with it. He was not only innovative in the electrical field, but he also designed a flexible stethoscope, and in 1840 published the first description of such an instrument. A devout Christian, Bird believed Bible study and prayer were just as important to medical students as their academic studies. He endeavoured to promote Christianity among medical students and encouraged other professionals to do likewise. To this end, Bird was responsible for the founding of the Christian Medical Association, although it did not become active until after his death. Bird suffered from poor health throughout his life and died at the age of 39.

Life and career Bird was born in Downham, Norfolk, England, on 9 December 1814. His father (also named Golding Bird) had been an officer in the Inland Revenue in Ireland, and his mother, Marrianne, was Irish. He was precocious and ambitious, but childhood rheumatic fever and endocarditis left him with poor posture and lifelong frail health. He received a classical education when he was sent with his brother Frederic to stay with a clergyman in Wallingford, where he developed a lifelong habit of self-study. From the age of 12, he was educated in London, at a private school that did not promote science and provided only a classical education. Bird, who seems to have been far ahead of his teachers in science, gave lectures in chemistry and botany to his fellow pupils. He had four younger siblings, of whom his brother Frederic also became a physician and published on botany. In 1829, when he was 14, Bird left school to serve an apprenticeship with the apothecary William Pretty in Burton Crescent, London. He completed it in 1833 and was licensed to practise by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries at Apothecaries' Hall in 1836. He received this licence without examination because of the reputation he had gained as a student at Guy's, the London teaching hospital where he had become a medical student in 1832 while still working at his apprenticeship. At Guy's he was influenced by Thomas Addison, who recognised his talents early on. Bird was an ambitious and very capable student. Early in his career he became a Fellow of the Senior Physical Society, for which a thesis was required. He received prizes for medicine, obstetrics, and ophthalmic surgery at Guy's and the silver medal for botany at Apothecaries' Hall. Around 1839 to 1840, he worked on breast disease at Guy's as an assistant to Sir Astley Cooper. Bird graduated from the University of St Andrews with an MD in 1838 and an MA in 1840 while continuing to work in London. St Andrews required no residence or examination for the MD. Bird obtained his degree by submitting testimonials from qualified colleagues, which was common practice at the time. Once qualified in 1838, at the age of 23, he entered general practice with a surgery at 44 Seymour Street, Euston Square, London. He was unsuccessful at first because of his youth, but in the same year he became physician to the Finsbury Dispensary, a post he held for five years. By 1842, he had an income of £1000 a year from his private practice. Adjusted for inflation, this amounts to a spending power of about £98,000 now. At the end of his career, his income was just under £6000. He became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1840, and a fellow in 1845.

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