Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/211

 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.



RIPON, first [See  (1827–1909), statesman.]

RISLEY, HERBERT HOPE (1851–1911), Indian civil servant and anthropologist, was born on 4 Jan. 1851 at Akeley, Buckinghamshire, where his father, John Risley, was rector. His mother was Frances, daughter of John Hope, at one time residency surgeon of Gwalior. The Risley family for centuries held a high position in the county and in Oxfordshire. On 13 July 1863 he was elected in open competition a scholar of Winchester, a privilege which his ancestors had for many generations enjoyed by the mere right of founder's kin. He won there the Goddard scholarship and the Queen's gold medal, and on 30 July 1869 obtained a scholarship at New College, Oxford. He passed on 29 April 1871 the competitive examination for the Indian civil service, but he graduated B.A. in 1872 with a second class in law and modern history, before he joined the service on 3 June 1873. Posted to Midnapur as assistant collector he entered at once into the interests of district life, and until his death, despite the calls of duties in the secretariat, he cultivated an intimate knowledge of the peoples of India. At a 'domum' dinner at Winchester in 1910 he asserted that 'a knowledge of facts concerning the religions and habits of the peoples of India equips a civil servant with a passport to their affection.' His zeal for work and his literary power early attracted the attention of the government, and Sir [q. v. Suppl. I], then engaged on the compilation of the 'Gazetteer of Bengal' as director-general of statistics, made Risley on 15 Feb. 1875 one of his assistants. The chapter on Chota Nagpur was written by him. Within five years of his arrival in India he rose from assistant secretary to be under-secretary in Bengal, and in 1879 was promoted to the imperial secretariat as under-secretary to the government of India in the home department. But despite this unusually rapid promotion his heart was still in the districts, and by his own wish he reverted to them, going to Govindpur in 1880, Hazaribagh, and then to Manbhum, where he superintended the survey of Ghatwah and other lands held on service tenure. In Jan. 1885 he was employed on the congenial task of compiling statistics relating to the castes and occupations of the people of Bengal. He thus acquired a wide acquaintance with scientific authorities in Europe, including Professor Popinard, whose system of anthropological research Risley apphed to India. His work on 'Tribes and Castes of Bengal' (Calcutta, 1891-2) was well received by the 