Bright, Richard (1789-1858)

British physician who described many conditions and linked oedema to kidney disease. Bright's disease, an acute inflammation of the kidneys (see nephritis), is named after him. Bright was born in Bristol and studied medicine at Edinburgh University. He was on the staff of Guy's Hospital, London, from 1820. Bright initiated the use of biochemical studies by working with chemists to demonstrate that urea is retained in the body in kidney failure. He also correlated symptoms in patients with the pathological changes he later found in postmortem examinations of the same people. In this way he found that the presence of the protein albumin in the urine and oedema (accumulation of fluid in the body) are associated with pathological changes in the kidneys.