| Sir Almroth Wright | |
| Birth Date: | 10 August 1861 |
| Birth Place: | Middleton Tyas, Yorkshire, England |
| Death Place: | Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Field: | bacteriology immunology |
| Work Institutions: | Netley Hospital St Mary's Hospital, London |
| Alma Mater: | Trinity College Dublin |
| Known For: | vaccination through the use of autogenous vaccines |
| Prizes: | Buchanan Medal (1917) Fellow of the Royal Society[1] |
Sir Almroth Edward Wright (10 August 1861 – 30 April 1947) was a British bacteriologist and immunologist.[2]
He is notable for developing a system of anti-typhoid fever inoculation, recognizing early on that antibiotics would create resistant bacteria, and being a strong advocate for preventive medicine.
Wright was born at Middleton Tyas, near Richmond, North Yorkshire into a family of mixed Anglo-Irish and Swedish descent.[3] He was the son of Reverend Charles Henry Hamilton Wright, deacon of Middleton Tyas, who later served in Belfast, Dublin, and Liverpool and managed the Protestant Reformation Society.[4] His mother, Ebba Almroth, was the daughter of, Governor of the Swedish Royal Mint in Stockholm.[5] His younger brother Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright became the librarian of the London Library.
In 1882, he graduated from Trinity College Dublin with first-class honours in modern literature and won a gold medal in modern languages and literature.[6] Simultaneously he took medicine courses and in 1883 graduated in medicine. In the late 19th century, Wright worked with the armed forces of Britain to develop vaccines and promote immunisation.
He married Jane Georgina Wilson (1861-1926)[3] in 1889 and had three children. The first, Edward Robert Mackay Wright (1890–1913), was born in Glebe, Sydney. Second son Leonard Almoth Wilson Wright (1891–1972) was born in Dublin, as was daughter Doris Helena MacNaughton Wright (later Romanes, after whom the Helena Romanes School was named) (1894–1990).[7]
In 1902, Wright started a research department at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London. He developed a system of anti-typhoid fever inoculation and brought the humoral and cellular theories of immunity together by showing the cooperation of a substance (that he named opsonin) contained in the serum with the phagocytes against pathogens.[8] Citing the example of the Second Boer War, during which many soldiers died from easily preventable diseases, Wright convinced the armed forces that 10 million vaccine doses for the troops in northern France should be produced during World War I. During WWI Wright established a research laboratory attached to the British Expeditionary Force's hospital designated Number 13, General Hospital in Boulogne-sur-Mer.[9] In 1919, Wright returned to St Mary's and remained there until his retirement in 1946. Among the many bacteriologists who followed in Wright's footsteps at St Mary's was Sir Alexander Fleming, who in turn later discovered lysozyme and penicillin. Wright was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 1906.[10] Leonard Colebrook became his assistant in 1907 and continued working with him until 1929.[11]
Wright warned early on that antibiotics would create resistant bacteria, something that has proven an increasing danger. He made his thoughts on preventive medicine influential, stressing preventive measures. Wright's ideas have been re-asserted recently—70 years after his death—by modern researchers in articles in such periodicals as Scientific American. He also argued that microorganisms are vehicles of disease but not its cause, a theory that earned him the nickname "Almroth Wrong" from his opponents. Another derogatory nickname was "Sir Almost Wright".[12]
He also proposed that logic be introduced as a part of medical training, but his idea was never adopted. Wright also pointed out that Pasteur and Fleming, although both excellent researchers, had not managed to find cures for the diseases for which they had sought cures, but instead had stumbled upon cures for totally unrelated diseases.
Wright was a strong proponent of the Ptomaine theory for the cause of Scurvy.[13] The theory was that poorly preserved meats contained alkaloids that were poisonous to humans when consumed. This theory was prevalent when Robert Falcon Scott planned his fateful expedition to the Antarctic in 1911. In 1932, the true cause of the disease was determined to be the deficiency from the diet of a particular nutrient, now called Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid, Scorbic meaning Scurvy).
There is a ward named after him at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London.
Wright was strongly opposed to women's suffrage. He argued that women's brains were innately different from men's and were not constituted to deal with social and public issues. His arguments were most fully expounded in his book The Unexpurgated Case Against Woman Suffrage (1913). In the book, Wright also vigorously opposes the professional development of women.[14] Rebecca West and May Sinclair both wrote articles criticizing Wright's opposition to women's suffrage.[15] [16] Charlotte Perkins Gilman satirized Wright's opposition to women's suffrage in her novel Herland.
Wright was a friend of his fellow Irishman George Bernard Shaw. He was immortalised as Sir Colenso Ridgeon in the play The Doctor's Dilemma written in 1906, which arose from conversations between Shaw and Wright. Shaw credits Wright as the source of his information on medical science: "It will be evident to all experts that my play could not have been written but for the work done by Sir Almroth Wright on the theory and practice of securing immunization from bacterial diseases by the inoculation of vaccines made of their own bacteria."[17] This remark of Shaw's is characteristically ironical. Wright was knighted shortly before the play was written, and Shaw was suspicious of Wright's high reputation (the latter was also known by the nickname Sir Almost Right). The two men met in 1905, and engaged in a long series of robust discussions, involving at one point a challenge from the medical audience that they had "too many patients on our hands already". Shaw's response was to ask what would be done if there was more demand from patients than could be satisfied, and Wright answered: "We should have to consider which life was worth saving." This became the "dilemma" of the play.[18]
Shaw also portrays him in his playlet How These Doctors Love One Another! and uses his theory of bacterial mutation in Too True to Be Good.[12] Shaw, who campaigned for women's suffrage, strongly disagreed with Wright about women's brains and dismissed his views on the subject as absurd.
Wright had been honoured for his deeds a total of 29 times in his lifetime – a knighthood, 5 honorary doctorates, 5 honorary orders, 6 fellowships (2 honoraries), 4 prizes, 4 memberships, and 3 medals (Buchanan Medal, Fothergill Gold Medal and a special medal "for the best medical work in connection with the war").[19] He was nominated 14 times for the Nobel prize from 1906 to 1925.[20]
Wright's work could be split up into the following three phases